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A Reading from Homer—Alma-Tadema 

“It was this widespread love for the wonder songs of Homer which helped to knit 
together the different Greek tribes into a people using the same language” (p. 20). 





















Light Bearers 


Stories of Old Greece 


ALDIS DUNBARl W^ 



BECKLEY-CARDY COMPANY 
CHICAGO 




X>f2.\5 


Copyright, 1925, by 
BECKLEY-CARDY COMPANY 
All Rights Reserved 



SEP 26 *25 

MADE IN T7. S. A. 

©C1A86?&*8 

wo ; I 


MRS. HENRY ALDEN CLARK 

WITH DEEP AFFECTION 


So tljf glnrg tliat mas ^rrrrr 
Anti tt|r grattnrur that mas iSomr 

To Helen —Poe 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Glory of Greece. 11 


The beautiful little land itself, today, where 
every corner is alive with undying memo¬ 
ries. Why it, rather than any other tiny 
island-girt peninsula, is held in such honor, 
as having handed down to us so much worth 
having and knowing. The legends of Homer, 
that make word-pictures of the ways of 
thinking and living of the early Greeks. 

II. Legend and History. 23 

Where the legends join onto history. The 
older countries around the great Midland 
Sea. Egypt and Phoenicia. The Pelasgians 
and the cities of the Heroic Age. Where 
Troy really was. Athens and Theseus. 

Sparta; Mycenae and Tiryns on Argos plain. 
Cadmus and Thebes. Cretan sign writing 
and the Phoenician alphabet. Possible com¬ 
merce with China. 

III. Greek Cities and Colonies. 33 

How a city would begin and grow. Athens 
and the death of Codrus. How republics be¬ 
gan in Greece. The clans and tribes, sup¬ 
posed to descend from the gods and heroes. 
Colonies going out to Asia Minor; like the 
Trojan expedition. Those who were thus 
setting out to conquer new footholds. What 
their ships were like. 

IV. Spartan Laws and Customs. 43 

Sparta and her kings. Lycurgus and his 
law-making. Contrast between the surround¬ 
ings of King Menelaus (Odyssey) and the 
“Spartan” habits from the time of Lycurgus. 
Training of boys and girls. Helots. Aris- 
tomenes and the war with Messenia. Mes¬ 
sina in Italy founded. 






8 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

V. Athenian Codes and Rulers. 55 


Athens and her law givers, the Archons. 

Draco and the “laws written in blood.” Cy- 
lon and Megacles. Banishment of the Alc- 
maeonidae. Solon and Pisistratus. The ty¬ 
rants. Aristogiton and Harmodius. 

VI. The Olympian Games. 67 

Argos and the Olympian games. How com¬ 
petitors, young and full grown, were trained. 

Delphi and the oracle. The marble temple 
built by the Alcmaeonidae. More about ty¬ 
rants. What the name meant. Corinth and 
the Isthmian games. Other festivals held in 
honor of the gods. 

VII. The Greek Colonies in Asia Minor. 77 

How the Asiatic colonies grew, and how the 
Persian power came nearer and began to 
dominate them. Hippias and Darius. How 
the Persians first set out to conquer Athens, 
and what befell to turn them back. 

VIII. The Persian Menace. 85 

Darius and his demands. Athens’ great gen¬ 
erals. Marathon and Miltiades. Themisto- 
cles and Aristides. The ships and the army. 

IX. Xerxes and His Armies. 95 

Xerxes and his preparations for war with 
Greece. The Spartan envoys. Crossing the 
Hellespont. The canal by Mount Athos. Re¬ 
call of Aristides. 

X. The Persian Invasion. 103 

Thermopylae and Leonidas. The great sea 
battle of Salamis. How Athens was de¬ 
stroyed. Platea. Pausanias and the Spar¬ 
tans. 

XI. Rebuilding Athens . 115 

The rebuilding, greater than ever before, of 
the City of the Olive Crown. The Acropolis 
and the walls. Piraeus. Banishment of The- 
mistocles. Cimon and the Academy. The 
Age of Pericles. Phidias. 









CONTENTS 


9 


CHAPTER PAGE 

XII. The Wisdom of Greece. 125 

How wisdom was beloved. Sophocles and 
Euripides. Socrates and Alcibiades. Plato 
and Xenophon. The great public assemblies. 

XIII. Troublous Times .134 


Downfall of Athenian power and war with 
Sicilian cities. How the Spartans gained the 
upper hand. The Thirty Tyrants. Athens 
again set free. Cyrus and the retreat of the 
Ten Thousand. Death of Socrates. 

XIV. Strife Among the States. 144 

Thebes and Sparta. Mantinea and Epimi- 
nondas. The tyrants in Sicily. Damon and 
Pythias. Dionysius and Plato. The power 
of Carthage. 

XV. Spread of Greek Culture. 156 

How Greek ways and learning were spread¬ 
ing outward like ripples from a stone 
dropped into water. Cities still great today 
which were founded or fostered by Greeks. 

Sicily and the other islands. 

XVI. Philip and Alexander. 163 

Rise of Macedonia. Conquests of Philip. 
Demosthenes. Alexander the King. Dioge¬ 
nes. The Gordian knot. Victory over Da¬ 
rius. Alexander and the Jews. 

XVII. Alexander Extends His Conquests. 172 

Alexander in Egypt and India. Greek im¬ 
press left wherever he conquered. Rome 
alone did not bow down to him and do hom¬ 
age. The new power slowly rising and tak¬ 
ing shape in Italy. Death of Alexander. 

XVIII. Macedonia and Rome. 178 

The division of the Empire. How Demos¬ 
thenes died. Phocion, “the last of the 
Athenians.” The Seven Wonders of the 
World. Decadence of Sparta and dissensions 
all over Greece. Final entrance into Greece 
of Roman power, seemingly in order to free 
the land, but in reality to reduce it to the 
level of a Roman province. 









LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

A Reading from Homer— Alma-Tadema... .Frontispiece 
The Little Broken Peninsula and Its Clustering 

Islands . 13 

Athene, the Goddess of Wisdom. 18 

i ‘ The Mediterranean Sea Was the Center of the 

Known Earth” . 22 

Athens Old and New. 31 

The Acropolis of Athens. 37 

A Greek Ship . 42 

Apollo, the God of the Sun. 52 

The Theseum, at Athens. 59 

The Chariot Race— Chsca . 66 

Ruins of the Temple of Zeus (or Jupiter) at 

Olympia . 69 

Hermes, Messenger of the Gods. 72 

Athletes' Entrance to the Stadium at Olympia. .. 75 

“The Frieze of the Archers”. 82 

The Acropolis of Athens Restored to Its Beauty. .118 

The Dedication of a Greek Temple. .121 

The Great Open Theater of Dionysus.129 

Damon and Pythias.153 

The Pyramids of Egypt.183 


10 


















THE LIGHT BEARERS 

Stories of Old Greece 


CHAPTER I 

THE GLORY OF GREECE 

I F SOME daring traveler could go journeying 
far, far back through the ages, and pass across 
the centuries that lie between as if they were 
hills and valleys, he would come at last into what 
we love to call “the Morning of the World”—that 
wonderful time when almost everything about which 
we know was beginning freshly, like a new day at 
sunrise. 

Men and women were living then, scattered here 
and there over many parts of the earth as we know 
it today; but those who dwelt a few hundred miles 
inland had no clear ideas about the stormy seas 
which beat upon the shores of their own country. 
They knew even less that was true about the people 
who had settlements along the seacoast, either on 
islands or near sheltered inlets and bays. Traders 
who ventured to travel from one tribe to another 
always had stories to tell each one about what its 
neighbors did and how they lived. But stories that 
were simple in the beginning would be passed on, 
told and retold, until many tellings twisted them 
into strange tales full of adventures and marvels. 



12 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


The tribes who lived near a seacoast knew just as 
little of things inland as the inland peoples knew of 
them, but they were apt to have clearer ideas of 
what the world, as a whole, was like. They saw the 
sea surging around their rocky shores and rolling 
up the sandy beaches—that sea was what made it 
possible for them to reach new places. In fair 
weather they would often catch glimpses of neigh¬ 
boring islands or of some nearby mainland beyond 
the white-capped surf. So they would contrive ways 
to reach the shores they saw. The bravest of them 
soon went paddling away from their own beaches on 
rafts made of logs tied together with thongs or 
tough vines, or in rude boats hollowed by fire from 
the trunks of trees. 

Sometimes such bold voyagers made friends and 
traded with the strangers they visited; sometimes 
they banded together and fought them until the 
stronger tribe had won. 

Famous among those lands where men lived and 
learned from each other, fought and strove with each 
other, in the Morning of the World, was a rugged 
little peninsula. It reached out then, just as it does 
today, southward from what we now call Europe, 
into the Mediterranean (which means midland) Sea, 
to the east of Italy. Wise men have studied the 
shape of this peninsula on the map and the way its 
mountains rise sharply in places close to the sea. 
They say that some great earthquake must have 
broken it across through the middle, from the west¬ 
ern side almost to the eastern. This happened long, 
long ago. It came near turning the southern half of 
the country into an island, for the sea came flowing 
into the long gorge or valley made by the earthquake 


THE GLOKY OF GREECE 


13 


and washed against the mountains on either side of 
it. It may have been that same great earth shock 
which tore away from the mainland many rocky 



Drawn by A. H. Bumslead © National Geographic Society 

The Little Broken Peninsula and Its 
Clustering Islands 

fragments which became islands, great and small, 
that cluster around it in the sea. 

In the northern part of this rugged little country, 
along its western coast, was a tiny tribe of men who 
called themselves “Graikoi”; and these people 







































14 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


traded with the Latins, over in Italy, from the earli¬ 
est times. The Latins, finding the name strange to 
their tongues, twisted it a bit and gave these neigh¬ 
bors from across the Ionian Sea the name of 
“Greeks.’’ The land from which they had come 
sailing westward became known as Graecia, or 
Greece. Through those Latins these names have 
come down to us; hut from the olden time, even until 
today, the people themselves have always loved to 
call their little broken peninsula and its clustering 
islands by the ancient name of Hellas and them¬ 
selves, its people, the Hellenes. 

When some one writes or speaks of the beauty and 
wonder of Greece, and of the honor we owe the men 
who lived there long ago, a question may come into 
the minds of boys and girls. Even older people do 
not always understand why so small a country, far 
away in southeastern Europe, should mean so much 
to American men and women, or to American boys 
and girls. They look at the map and see that Greece 
is but half the size of Florida, and only one-third 
as large as Corea. Then they ask us why Greece 
and its old-time stories should be more to them than 
Corea and its history, or that of Alaska, which is 
two hundred times the size of Greece and is part of 
the United States as well. 

They will say, too, that few Americans had fore¬ 
fathers who were Greeks, or who had ever seen or 
spoken with Greeks. 

It is quite true that most of our own ancestors 
came from countries far up in the northwestern 
parts of Europe, on or near the shores of the At¬ 
lantic. Many of them knew nothing about the his¬ 
tory or language of Greece; yet without that brave 


THE GLORY OF GREECE 


15 


little country their own lives and ways of living 
would have been very different, and so would ours 
be today. 

The reason is quickly told and easily understood. 
Greece was the teacher of Rome. The Romans con¬ 
quered and taught the rest of Europe. Just as the 
wisest one in a party of sayage lads will gather to¬ 
gether and guard the scattered brands of the camp¬ 
fire and keep them alive and burning with fresh fuel 
so that he and his companions may not lack warmth 
and light when they need them, so the Greeks, in 
the Morning of the World, gathered for use all sorts 
of knowledge worth having. They were Guardians 
of the Fire of Knowledge. From every tribe or 
nation with whom they traded, or fought, or made 
friends, they learned something worth knowing, and 
kept it safely for their own use. They were quick¬ 
witted, and when they passed on to their children 
what they had found out, it was a thing tested and 
improved and even better worth remembering than 
when they first heard of it. 

What the old tribes of Florida and Corea and 
Alaska knew has never come down to us for our 
use. Our customs today would be exactly the same 
if there had never been such tribes. We trace the 
growth of our knowledge directly back to Greece— 
the land that gathered wisdom from far and wide, 
in little things and in large ones, and taught not 
only Rome, but many great cities founded by Greek 
sailors and traders, all around the Mediterranean. 

When Rome learned from Greece—carrying that 
wisdom-fire onward and giving it to all peoples and 
lands conquered by Roman armies—she was giving 
it to the peoples and lands from which our own fore- 


16 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


fathers came, and where our customs of today 
began. 

There is something still greater for us to know 
and to remember about them. The Greeks loved 
beautiful things, and taught others why and how to 
love them. They gave high honor to noble and brave 
deeds, and kept alive the memory of men who had 
performed them. They were a free people for hun¬ 
dreds of years, and through all their wars, great or 
small, they held strongly to the love of freedom. In 
after years many nations remembered what splendid 
things so small a people had done—how they had 
beaten back tyrants and invaders and kept them¬ 
selves from slavery; and the memory gave these 
later nations courage, too, to fight for liberty and to 
win it for themselves. 

In their own homes, nearly three thousand years 
ago, in what is called the Achaean age, the Greek 
boys and girls were told stories which are still 
known, about gods and heroes who were mighty in 
war; who did many wonderful deeds. These stories 
woven together recalled things that had really hap¬ 
pened to their forefathers, and legends of what the 
gods had done to help or hinder those real men in 
battle and in other adventures. 

Those Greeks of long ago believed that there were 
gods and goddesses, like stronger, wiser and more 
beautiful men and women, who lived on Mount 
Olympus, in Thessaly, and were ruled by Zeus (or 
Jupiter). They really believed that many of the 
heroes from whom they themselves were descended 
were children of the gods or goddesses. This ac¬ 
counted to them for the power and courage of their 
bravest kings and warriors. 


THE GLORY OF GREECE 


17 


They believed that when heroes fought against 
each other in battle, the different gods and goddesses 
took sides. That they would hasten down from 
Olympus and try to win victory for their own chil¬ 
dren, either by giving them wise counsel, or by 
bringing them armor that could not be pierced, or 
even by taking the shapes of human warriors and 
fighting beside their sons, until Zeus forbade this 
practice. A Greek boy or man who counted one of 
the mighty heroes as his forefather would feel that 
he too must show himself brave and worthy of de¬ 
scent from the gods. 

Zeus, his wife Hera (or Juno) and their brother 
and sister gods and goddesses were said to be sons 
and daughters of Saturn (or Time), who had tried 
to devour all his children, but who had been con¬ 
quered by Zeus. Zeus then shared his power with 
the brothers and sisters whom he had rescued. Pluto 
was made ruler over the Lower World, where the 
spirits of men were said to go after death, and where 
no sunshine came. Poseidon (or Neptune) was be¬ 
lieved to rule the sea and the rivers running into it. 
Zeus himself had power over all the fair, bright 
earth, with its mountains and forests. 

Apollo, the son of Zeus, was god of the sun, was 
learned in music and medicine and in all beautiful 
arts. Ares (or Mars) was god of war, and Athene 
(or Minerva), their younger sister, was goddess of 
wisdom. From her the lovely city of Athens took 
its name. 

Hermes (or Mercury), another son of Zeus, was 
the messenger of the gods. He held rule over wind 
and rain and was the especial friend and helper of 
travelers and merchants, shepherds and thieves! He 



Athene, the Goddess of Wisdom 
“From her the lovely city of Athens took its name” (p. 18). 




THE GLORY OF GREECE 


19 


also had charge of taking the souls of the dead down 
to Hades, the kingdom of Pluto. 

So it came to be that any unusual thing which 
happened to those old-time Greeks, or anything they 
believed had happened to their fathers, was said to 
be the act of some god or goddess. In this way many 
of the old hero legends grew. 

From some sea voyage, made in search of gold 
and adventure, came the story of Jason, who sailed 
boldly away with a ship full of hero-comrades, to 
win the Golden Fleece of a wonderful ram, which 
was guarded by a dragon. From deeds of strength 
and daring, done to free a country from terrible 
wild animals and fierce robbers, came the stories 
about Theseus, who slew giants and the monster, 
man-devouring bull called the Minotaur; and about 
Hercules, the strongest of all living men, so mighty 
that he was held to be the son of Zeus himself. 

A dispute arose between Hera, Athene and Aphro¬ 
dite (or Venus), the goddess of love, as to which of 
tJSAn was most beautiful. To make mischief, some 
We had flung among them a golden apple, on which 
were the words: “To the fairest,” and each of the 
three goddesses claimed it as hers by right. At last 
they appealed to Paris, the son of the king of Troy 
(or Ilium), to decide for them; and each goddess 
tried to bribe him with the promise of some gift. 
Aphrodite offered him a wife as beautiful as herself, 
and to her Paris gave the prize. The lovely bride 
was already the wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta. 
Aphrodite helped Paris to steal her away; and men 
told over and over again the story of how all the 
heroes of Greece sailed across the iEgean Sea to 
fight for the fair Helen and bring her back from 


20 


TIIE LIGHT BEARERS 


Ilium. This legend grew into one of the most noble 
story-poems of the ages: the Iliad. The Greeks say 
that it was a blind old poet, named Homer, who, 
having gathered together all the traditions about 
this war between Greeks and Trojans, wandered 
through the lovely land of Hellas, singing of them, 
until those who heard him learned his words by 
heart and took pride in claiming the mighty war¬ 
riors of whom he sang as their own forefathers. 

More than anything else, it was this widespread 
love for the wonder songs of Homer which helped 
to knit together the different Greek tribes into a 
people using the same language, when otherwise 
they might have grown apart and picked up instead 
the speech of settlers who came to their shores from 
foreign lands. 

Homer was said to have been the singer of an¬ 
other grand story-poem. This was the Odyssey, 
which told of the wanderings of Ulysses (or Odys¬ 
seus) after Troy had been taken by the Greeks and 
the other heroes had sailed safely home. Ulysses 
had offended the sea-god, Poseidon, who caused 
great storms to arise and thus prevented him from 
returning to his island home of Ithaca. He had 
marvelous adventures before he ever saw it again. 

A siege of Troy, in which it was sacked and 
burned, there certainly was; the date is fixed by 
historians at 1194 to 1184, B. C. Whether the other 
features of these great stories happened exactly as 
told in the Iliad and Odyssey does not really matter. 
What is important is that these traditions, handed 
down for three thousand years, tell, as part of the 
story, so much about the daily life of an ancient 
Greek that by reading them we can picture the sort 


THE GLORY OF GREECE 


21 


of house in which he lived, what he planted in his 
garden and orchard, of what his clothes were made, 
how his ships were built and how they sailed across 
the seas, and with what weapons he fought. We 
know what he thought about and what he believed. 

Many hundred years from now people will read our 
story books to know how we lived. Perhaps they 
will wonder why certain queer old customs of the 
year nineteen hundred and something never died 
out, but could still be found in quiet country places— 
just as travelers in modern Greece of today are sur¬ 
prised to find, among the mountains and on the little 
islands, customs that Homer sang of, so far back 
through the ages. 












































CHAPTER II 


LEGEND AND HISTORY 

I N THAT wonderful Morning of the World the 
Mediterranean Sea was the center of the known 
earth. All around it and bordering on it were 
the older and more civilized nations from whom the 
Greeks drew much of their knowledge. To travel 
away from it northward into Europe or southward 
into Africa was to find countries and tribes more 
and more fierce and barbarous the farther one went. 
Traders and travelers to those wild lands were glad 
when it was time to turn back again to the shores 
of the Midland Sea. 

In some of these older nations were wise men and 
priests, who kept records of their kings and wars, 
and of trading and exploring voyages to neighboring 
countries. These records were carved on stone, or 
pictures of the happenings were painted on the walls 
of temples and tombs and palaces, where some of 
them can still be found. These records go back 
farther than anything which the Greek traditions 
reveal to us. By studying what they tell of Greek 
lands and people, we learn how the beautiful legends 
of ancient Hellas grew out of actual happenings. 

Egypt and Phoenicia were among those older coun¬ 
tries. Their trading ships and long-oared galleys 
went back and forth along the coasts of the H^gean 
Sea, which is that part of the Mediterranean be¬ 
tween Greece and Asia Minor. Its western shore 


9 p. 


24 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


was Greece itself. The islands that shut it in, almost 
like a lake, were counted part of Greece; and many 
Greek settlements rose along its eastern side, which 
was the coast of Asia Minor. These colonies were 
an important part of ancient Greece, and some of 
them grew rich and powerful. 

Even if the learned priests in Egypt had kept no 
record, men today would know that ships sailed and 
traded between that country and Greece. In Argolis, 
once a kingdom of Greece, are the ruins of an old, 
old city called Mycenae. The Iliad tells of its mighty 
king, Agamemnon, who was chosen by the Greek 
heroes to lead them in their war against the Trojans. 
Less than sixty years ago, men exploring those an¬ 
cient ruins of Mycenae found among them the tombs 
of kings who ruled over Argolis thousands of years 
ago. In those tombs were pottery and jewelry from 
Egypt; while pictures of Mycenaean vases have been 
found painted on walls in the Egyptian city of 
Thebes. Those paintings were made fifteen hundred 
years before the time of Christ, proving that in days 
very far off the Egyptians had dealings with the 
rugged little peninsula of Greece. 

The Phoenicians, too, came and went in trading 
ships from their cities of Tyre and Sidon, on the 
Mediterranean coast of Asia, farther to the south 
than the Greek colonies which grew up on that shore 
and close to the country now called Palestine. 
Those Phoenician merchants were daring mariners. 
They ventured out into the stormy Atlantic itself 
to trade with the islanders of far Britain. Such 
fearless voyagers were no strangers to the Greek 
islands and mainland, their near neighbors. They 
had much to do with the up-building of Greece. 


LEGEND AND HISTORY 


25 


Long before the days of the Greek hero-legends, 
and even before the famous old Greek cities of 
Athens and Mycenae, Tiryns and Sparta and Corinth 
were built, a savage race, the Pelasgians, lived 
among the hills and valleys of the Greek peninsula. 
At first they knew little of building, or of the sim¬ 
plest kinds of useful arts. Often their homes were 
nothing but caves in the mountain-sides. It was 
when the Egyptian and Phoenician trading ships be¬ 
gan to come to their coasts that they found out from 
these visitors how to use fire for cooking food, and 
how to build great stone walls in the manner that 
even now is called “Pelasgian.” For so strongly 
did they build, once they had learned their lesson, 
that even today, in that land of clear light and blue 
skies, their walls, made of great, rough-liewn blocks 
of stone, set together without mortar of any kind, 
are still standing. 

The Pelasgians were quick to learn from the new¬ 
comers who landed on their shores. It was not long 
before they were making weapons for themselves 
and tools of iron and bronze. Then, as settlers came 
from Egypt and other Mediterranean countries to 
live among them, cities commenced to grow, and 
what is called the ‘ ‘ Heroic Age ’’ began. 

The real history of the way in which the Greek 
people grew out of those half savage tribes has come 
down to us in such a tangle of wonder legends, that 
it is not easy for the wisest scholars to draw the 
line between fact and fairy tale. But no single year 
passes in which wonderful things are not learned, 
as explorers find and uncover cities long buried and 
forgotten; and many fairy tales have turned out to 
be very like facts, after all. 


26 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


Throughout hundreds of years there were many 
learned men who did not believe that there had ever 
been such a city as Troy, conquered and burned by 
invading Greek warriors. The story Homer sang 
of the battling under its walls and of its capture, was 
held by them to be .just as much a wonder tale as 
any of those told about the gods. 

It was about the year 1870 that a scholar and 
traveler, Dr. Schliemann, set out to find and uncover 
the lost cities of the Heroic Age. He had always 
loved the old stories about them, and as he read 
and studied, he grew more and more convinced that 
something more than a hero-legend was at the root 
of the story of high-walled Troy. He believed that 
such a city had really existed, somewhere on the 
northwestern coast of Asia Minor, where the black¬ 
hulled ships of the Greek heroes could have reached 
it by sailing eastward from Aulis, on the Grecian 
mainland, across the .ZEgean Sea. He believed that 
he could find it. 

Dr. Schliemann gave his money and much of his 
life to this work. The place to which he thought the 
old legends of Troy pointed was the hill at Hissarlik, 
in Asia Minor, which is now part of the Turkish 
Empire. There he studied the hills and valleys and 
running streams, comparing them with all that the 
old stories told about the place where Troy stood. 
At last he felt so certain of his ground that he gath¬ 
ered laborers from all the country near and paid 
them well to dig out carefully and carry away the 
earth covering the great mound of Hissarlik. Little 
by little they uncovered, not one city alone, but the 
stone walls and pillars and pavements of six or seven 


LEGEND AND HISTORY 


27 


cities, one built above the other, at different times, 
ages apart. 

In each of these layers were found armor and 
jewelry and bits of shaped stone and pottery, unlike 
those in the layers next above and below. And in 
one of the lowest layers of all, Dr. Schliemann came 
on traces of a great fire and a battle, and so many 
other things of which both legends and records had 
spoken, that he himself felt no more doubt that that 
ancient city, long forgotten, had once been mighty 
Troy. 

It was in one of the deepest layers that an axe- 
head of white jade was discovered—a stone found 
nowhere outside of China. So it must have been 
brought thousands of miles by traders. 

While there are scholars who do not agree with 
Dr. Schliemann as to those marvelous ruins having 
surely been Troy (or Ilium) itself, yet about his dis¬ 
coveries among the ruined cities on Argos plain 
there can be no doubt whatever. 

This plain of Argos in Greece, lying south of the 
gulf and city of Corinth, was once a powerful little 
kingdom by itself. There today are to be found 
the remains of three great cities famous long before 
the times of which Homer sang. Tiryns, the giant 
fortress, which Homer called “the well walled city,” 
is the oldest of all; yet so stoutly were its massive 
walls built that their immense blocks of stone still 
endure in place, with the gateways through which 
Greek men and women, boys and girls, passed in and 
out thousands of years ago. 

Here, as at Mycenae, farther inland, where excava¬ 
tions were begun in 1876, palaces of ancient rulers 
have been uncovered, showing both where and how 


28 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


they lived. “Mycenae, rich in gold,” was what 
Homer called this second city, which took over the 
power from Tiryns; and among the ruins of its 
palaces and tombs Dr. Schliemann found treasures 
of wrought gold—cups and jewels, crowns and masks 
—that proved the name was surely given with good 
reason. It was the Greek tradition that Agamem¬ 
non, the great commander of the Greeks against the 
Trojans, had ruled both her© and in the city of Ar¬ 
gos, not far from Tiryns. It was to Argos that 
the beacon fires flashed, from far-off mountain peaks 
to those near by, telling its people that Troy had 
fallen after a siege of ten years, and that their king 
was coming hack to his own land again. 

But while there are ruins at Argos almost as an¬ 
cient and full of interest as those at Tiryns and 
Mycenae, it is unlike them in one important respect. 
Those two older cities were overthrown, at last, by 
their younger and stronger neighbor, and they van¬ 
ished from history as living towns. But Argos, 
though its power rose and fell, is one of the bright 
and thriving towns of modern Greece, with a history 
that does not need legends to give it interest. 

Even greater than Argos, and more noted in later 
history, was Sparta, farther south in the Pelopon¬ 
nesus. This long name was the one given by the 
Greeks to the southern half of their country—that 
part which was so nearly divided from the northern 
mainland by the Gulf of Corinth. Nowadays that 
lower part is called the Morea —people say because 
it is shaped like the mulberry leaf, or “ morns.’’ 
But the name Peloponnesus means “the Island of 
Pelops.” The old stories said that Pelops was a 
grandson of Zeus himself, and that Atreus, son of 


LEGEND AND HISTORY 


29 


Pelops, was the father of the two royal brothers, 
Agamemnon, the Argive king, and Menelaus, who 
ruled in Sparta. It was the stealing by Paris, son of 
the Trojan king, of the lovely Helen, wife of Mene¬ 
laus, that led to the war between Greeks and Tro¬ 
jans, and to many adventures which came after, of 
which the Iliad and the Odyssey tell the stories. 

The Peloponnesus is claimed to have been the 
birthplace also of Hercules, strongest of all heroes. 
Traditions told how his descendants, the Heraclidse, 
had been conquered and driven away into the north 
by the Pelopidae, sons of Pelops. A hundred years 
later, or about 1104 B. C., the Heraclidae, with their 
kinsmen and allies, the men of Doris, came sweeping 
down from Thessaly, in the far north of Greece, took 
Mycenae and Argos and Sparta, and made their 
leaders kings over those cities. 

The Dorians, by way of paying themselves for 
fighting well against the Pelopidae, drove out all who 
dwelt in that fertile part of the Peloponnesus which 
was called Ionia, and took possession of the land. 
So the sons of Pelops and the Ionians wandered off 
to settle in other parts of the Greek mainland and 
islands. Some of them made new homes for them¬ 
selves along the coast of Asia Minor, and so began 
certain of the Greek colonies there. But always, 
from those days, the descendants of the Dorians and 
the people whose forefathers had been driven from 
Ionia considered themselves born enemies, through 
peace and war. 

One can hardly blame either race; the Dorians 
for wanting to hold the fair plains of Sparta, or the 
Ionians for their anger at being banished; for it is 
a very lovely country, shut in by snowcapped moun- 


30 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


tains and rich in orchards of lemons and oranges, 
and in vineyards. Sparta, like Argos, has been a 
living city or town from the time it was built to 
this very hour; but no very old buildings are to be 
found there, as at Argos. There is no longer any 
trace of the ancient hero-city, nor of the palace of 
King Menelaus. The Dorian invaders must have 
torn them down, in order to build for themselves in 
some other fashion. Earthquakes, too, have de¬ 
stroyed many ruins of the ancient houses and tem¬ 
ples. But after all, it was its people, rather than 
the houses and walls of Sparta, that won for it an 
undying name. 

But the city which was to become the most famous 
of all in Greece, the city which is still a wonder of 
the world for the beauty remaining to it, was Athens. 
More than almost any other Grecian race, the men 
of Athens were proud to call the soil on which they 
dwelt their “fatherland.’’ They looked on them¬ 
selves as “earthborn,” descending from the most 
ancient dwellers in the land, who had no need to 
count back for ancestors to any tribes of outland 
invaders, although they might be sons of the gods. 

Yet while the Athenians themselves were “earth- 
born,” they believed the founder of their city to 
have been Cecrops, a wise prince from Egypt, who 
had taught the Pelasgians many useful things. 
From him they had learned how to till the soil and 
how to plant vineyards and groves, as well as the 
arts of plowing and weaving wool. At first the city 
was called Cecropia, from him; but the name was 
soon changed to Athens, in honor of Pallas Athene, 
its patron goddess, the wise daughter of Zeus. 

There came other kings after Cecrops and then, 



© Underwood & Underwood 


Athens Old and New 

In the foreground is the modern city of Athens. In the distance is 
the rock of the Acropolis, which rises to a height of 180 feet above 
the Plain of Attica and is about 1,100 feet long and 500 feet broad. 
On it stand the ruins of the Parthenon, the Erechtheum, and the 
temples of the Wingless Victory and of Artemis. 









32 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


at last, Athens was ruled by Theseus, son of HCgeus, 
who had been one of the heroes with Jason on his 
quest for the Golden Fleece. Later Theseus had 
slain the Minotaur, a monster which devoured 
young men and maidens, and he had had many other 
marvelous adventures among gods and men. 
Athens claimed him as her greatest hero; and in 
after years the Athenians built a temple to him, 
where he was honored as a god. 

One more city there was to which all Greece looked 
as the cradle of learning. Thebes, in the province 
of Boeotia, just north of Attica (the country of the 
Athenians), claimed as its founder Cadmus, the son 
of a Phoenician king, who taught its people to build 
ships, and to use them for trading overseas. And 
Cadmus, they said, was the first to teach his people 
what afterwards became the Greek alphabet, which, 
however, really grew out of the alphabet used by 
the Phoenicians. Whether it was Cadmus or some 
other Phoenician who brought it into use, no one can 
be sure; but it is certain that the alphabet originally 
used by the Phoenicians was adopted and improved 
by the Greeks, and that it was the “ancestor” of 
our own alphabet. 

It is true that the people of Crete, an island south 
of Greece, were the first Europeans to invent a sort 
of picture-writing, like that used by Egyptians, but 
there is no clue to the meaning of those old Cretan 
inscriptions, nor to the language of the men who 
carved them. It is known only that Crete had a very 
early civilization of its own, which was carried over 
to the Greek mainland by those sailors for whom 
Crete was the resting place on their voyages across 
the Mediterranean to the shores of Hellas. 


CHAPTER III 

GREEK CITIES AND COLONIES 


T OWNS and cities are so much a part of every¬ 
day living to us that we seldom stop to think 
how the first of them came to be. The first 
steps toward those in Hellas were taken far back in 
wild, rough times, when the strongest and wisest man 
was looked up to as leader of those weaker than him¬ 
self. Each of the tiny, scattered settlements, here 
and there on the Greek mountain-sides and in the 
sheltered valleys, had a chief of some sort, and 
around his hut or cave the village clung. 

This is how each one started. At first some single 
family took refuge from bad weather in a cave, or 
under the trunk of a fallen tree. After some great 
storm, when that refuge had not been found suffi¬ 
cient to protect them, they brought stones or logs to 
fill up the places where wind and rain had driven 
in. From such beginnings it was not long before 
they gained some practical ideas of building. They 
often had to build some sort of dwelling, for there 
would be more people needing home places than 
could find caves or wind-broken trees to shelter them. 

The first kind of house that men learned to build 
was much like the Eskimo snow huts that we see in 
pictures. The man who wanted a safe place for his 
family looked for a spot where the ground was 
hollowed out like a cup. He brought stones to it 
and laid them in rows one above another around the 
33 


34 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


hollow, the stones coming closer to the center as 
the wall he built grew higher, so that they finally 
touched in a peak, like the top of a round beehive. 
Sometimes, when they were afraid of enemies, the 
builders of these beehive huts covered the outsides 
with earth heaped on. The only door would be a 
tunnel underground. Anyone trying to enter had 
to creep in on hands and knees, which made it diffi¬ 
cult for an enemy to attack those inside. 

The next step was for several families to build 
in the same warm valley, or on some hilltop where 
an enemy could not well get at them to plunder their 
huts or to carry them off for slaves. When the need 
for fighting came, the man of them who w T as strong¬ 
est, or the one who knew the most, would be their 
leader. 

The next forward step would be to build some 
sort of rude wall around their little village or group 
of huts. This would not be hard to do, if the huts 
stood close together; and it made the village a safer 
place for the women and children to stay in while 
the men were out hunting. 

Even with a strong wall to protect them, the vil¬ 
lagers had to be watchful when harvest time came 
and they were working hard to gather stores of food 
for the winter. This was the time for ships full of 
strange fighting men to land on the shores near by; 
coming to capture and carry away both provisions 
and people from the villages around, if they could. 
Of men and women, and even of little children taken 
in such raids, those wild pirates made slaves to work 
for them or to row their ships. 

But the pirates did not always win those fights in 
which the villagers banded together to defend them- 


GREEK CITIES AND COLONIES 


35 


selves. It was fighting side by side for their homes 
and families that made strong ties of friendship 
among neighbor villages, who already had the same 
customs and ways of doing things, as well as the 
same language. 

After banding together for protection in war 
times, the men of the same valley or mountain-side 
soon came to have a feeling of clanship with each 
other and so formed the beginning of a tribe. A 
few hard fights with outland invaders, or with a clan 
dwelling in some other valley or on some other 
island, would quickly show them the need for a for¬ 
tress into which they could carry their goods and 
most precious belongings, as well as to be a strong¬ 
hold from which to defend their own lives and 
liberty. If this fortress could be on a hilltop or a 
great rocky cliff, so much the better. It might not 
be large enough for the whole tribe to live in with¬ 
out crowding when there was no fighting going on, 
but it was always there as a refuge. 

After a time, men of one tribe learned to build 
their huts near the base of their fort, so that none 
who came could cut them off from taking shelter 
there. Once inside their fortress, they defended the 
houses below by flinging great stones down at their 
enemies, or by shooting arrows at them from above, 
and so driving them away. 

It was in this fashion that little towns began, 
around the places where the stoutest and wisest 
warriors chose to build their huts. 

As these villagers of ancient Hellas learned to 
build better houses, and heeded things which they 
did not make for themselves, peaceful traders came, 
bringing goods from other countries. These they 


36 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


exchanged for skins, pottery, dried fish or whatever 
the villagers had to sell. Through these traders the 
village and country people learned many things 
about people in far-away places, how they lived and 
built houses. In time each town came to be the first 
rude beginning of a city, with houses set in some 
sort of order, and with open market-places for buy¬ 
ing and selling, instead of a mere huddle of huts 
around a cramped fortress. 

Around these open market-places were built the 
temples of whatever gods were worshiped by the 
people of the country. To show honor to those gods 
and to win their good will, men gave of their gains to 
make the temples beautiful, or to pave the open 
ground before them. 

Of course, as people learned to till the ground and 
to raise grain and fruit for food, some of them had 
to live out in the open country; but the city, grow¬ 
ing larger and stronger year by year, was always 
the most important place to its builder-clan, and its 
ruler was often both king and chief priest. 

It was in a fashion like this that Athens first began 
to grow around the fortress built by its earliest 
kings on the mighty rock known then—and today— 
as the “Acropolis,’’ which means the “upper city.” 
No rock in the world has so great and wonderful a 
history as the Acropolis of Athens. That history 
goes back into the earliest times of which we know 
anything. Far below, under the ruins of later years, 
are still found traces of massive Pelasgian walls, 
like those at Tiryns and Mycenae. They were rude 
and strong. The Athenians called them “ Walls of 
Cecrops,” and said that it was from his time onward 



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38 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


that Athens grew steadily as a city and became the 
great fortress of all Attica. 

When the Ionians were driven from their sunny 
green valleys around Sparta, many of them came to 
Athens. The king, Codrus, was friendly to them 
and let them settle there and make new homes for 
themselves. But in becoming Athenians they did 
not give up their hatred for the Heraclidae, or 
Dorians, as all the invaders came to be called. This 
bitter feeling spread from them through the people 
among whom they were now living, and of whom 
they soon became a strong part. 

In those days it did not take much to start war 
between two cities or small kingdoms. This feud 
between the Ionians and the warriors who had come 
down from the north and conquered Ionia soon 
brought on disputes between Athens and Sparta. 
The men of both cities were stout and brave; and 
when the Spartans marched up over the hills and 
on into Attica, the Athenians went out boldly to 
meet them. 

People in very old times often believed that their 
priests could find out from the gods they served 
what was going to happen. So Codrus tried to learn 
from a wise priest how the coming battle with the 
Spartans would turn out, and was told that the army 
whose king first lost his life would win the victory. 

Even today the Athenians tell how Codrus, brave 
and great-hearted, loved his country and people so 
unselfishly that he resolved to make the victory sure 
for them. He dressed himself as a poor peasant 
and made his way by night into the camp of the 
Spartans. There he managed to make some of the 
soldiers angry at him. This brought on a quarrel 


GREEK CITIES AND COLONIES 


39 


in which he was killed, before any battle between 
the two armies had really begun. 

When the men of Athens learned what had hap¬ 
pened, and that the king whom they so loved had 
given his life in order to win the battle for them, 
they fought so furiously against the Spartans that 
they forced them out of Attica, and the war, for 
that time, was ended. 

But there was little joy in the hearts of the 
Athenian soldiers as they went slowly home to the 
city they had marched out to defend. They found 
the body of Codrus, and carried it back to Athens 
for burial with high honor. They felt so much sor¬ 
row that, while they gave the son of Codrus the 
same power that his father had had, as was the cus¬ 
tom, yet they refused him the high title of king. Now 
that Codrus was dead, they counted no ruler worthy 
to inherit and bear that name. Instead, the new 
head of the city-state was called the Archon, or high 
chief. This name was now passed from one ruler 
of Athens to another, as king had been in the days 
before Codrus, and as it still was among other Greek 
tribes and states. 

Athens was only one of the city-states which were 
growing into power all through Greece. In the first 
years, these were all ruled by kings, who were rather 
war chiefs than anything else. The leader in battle 
was given the largest share of plunder—of gold and 
armor and of prisoners, to be held for ransom or 
to be his slaves and work for him. Having these 
things, he was able to build for himself a great 
house, to sow and reap from broad fields, and to 
grow more powerful with every fight in which he led 
warriors to victory. As he grew famous, men from 


40 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


the country or from small villages came and made 
their homes close to the city fortress which he com¬ 
manded, which was often his palace. They wanted 
the honor of being numbered among the followers 
of a mighty warrior whose name was known far be¬ 
yond his home, perhaps even among the far islands 
of the iEgean Sea and on the Asian coast. 

Yet here came in the Greeks’ love of freedom. So 
long as the king was their chosen war leader, it was 
well to fight at his side, and to obey his wise counsel 
in time of battle. Yet if he began to rule badly in 
more peaceful times, and to make unjust laws that 
gave him more power over them than they thought 
right, they were not slaves to submit to him. 

Never forget that every tribe and clan of these 
rugged mountain folk believed itself directly de¬ 
scended from some great hero who had won fame in 
those far-off, misty times when the gods walked on 
earth among the people of Hellas and called the 
heroes their sons. However poor they might be, it 
was matter for great pride with them to be no un¬ 
worthy heirs of those same brave heroes: Hercules, 
Theseus, Perseus, Achilles and many others. It was 
of their deeds that the old men told tales, over and 
over, on winter nights by the fire, while the women 
spun soft, white wool with their distaffs and the 
children sat hearkening to those wonderful adven¬ 
tures of their own forefathers that had happened 
long, long before. It is no marvel that the love of 
freedom and courage grew in those Greek boys as 
they listened. 

It was owing to the steady growth in size of the 
different cities that the rule of kings came to an end 
in Hellas. When the men from the country villages 


GREEK CITIES AND COLONIES 


41 


banded together to follow their chief in battle, where 
he fought mightily himself, they cared little for his 
temper and weaknesses. So long as he led them to 
victory over a rival city-state, or over some foreign 
enemy, they were satisfied. But when they came to 
live near by, and ran the danger of suffering from 
his greed or cruelty, they were apt to stop and think 
whether they really wanted to bow down to such a 
tyrant. 

Inside the city each man had plenty of neighbors 
with whom to talk things over. Together they were 
stronger than any king. So little by little the people 
took more of the work of law-making into their own 
hands. The title of king was either given up, or it 
became only an empty name. While much of the 
power was in the hands of men who had riches and 
counted themselves nobly born, yet these knew well 
how unsafe it would be to push their claims too far. 

It is with the scattering of the Ionian clans that 
the real records of Greek history begin. Part of 
them became citizens of Athens, while others took 
ship and sailed out into the iEgean Sea to find new 
homes for themselves. Some of these latter settled 
in nearby islands; but there were clans that reached 
the mainland of Asia Minor itself, where they 
founded cities and towns, the most famous of which 
was Ephesus. Their whole cluster of settlements, 
on the coast south of where Troy had been, came to 
be called Ionia, from the old homeland of the men 
who had founded them. 

At another time, settlements were made along the 
same coast, but farther north, by Dorians, whose 
colony took the name of Doris, after the little 
country in northern Greece from which they had 


42 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


first come. Still a third group of colonies, made 
by the iEolians, another Greek tribe, was called 
iEolis. 

The people of all these colonies in Asia Minor 
held themselves of just as pure Greek blood as their 
kinsmen back in Hellas. The only difference was 
that they had come away, not to conquer Troy, but 
to win new homes. For the sake of this they had 
brought all their possessions in black-hulled ships, 
which were long, narrow galleys, sometimes driven 
forward under great white sails, but more often sent 
swiftly over the waves by many long oars, in spite 
of wind and storm. 



A Greek Ship 

One of the earliest kind of ships. It had fifty rowers. 





CHAPTER IV 


SPARTAN LAWS AND CUSTOMS 

T HE rich city-state of Sparta, shut in by the 
rugged mountains of which Taygetus is high¬ 
est, kept its kings for a long time. The 
Dorians were stout, fighting men, and gave high 
honor to their war chiefs. Led by them, they had 
come down from their hill-country in the north, and 
had taken this fruitful valley for their own. Those 
of its people who had not been able to get away to 
other lands, out of reach of the conquerors, they 
forced to be their servants, to dig in the fields, plant 
and harvest their crops for them, and tend their 
cattle. Beside these conquered Ionians, many pris¬ 
oners taken in battle by the Dorians were divided 
among them, and treated as the meanest slaves, 
forced to do the hardest work. All these servant- 
folk were called Helots. 

Having plenty of Helots as their laborers, the 
Dorian conquerors soon came to look with scorn at 
those who were forced to toil for them in their fields 
and houses. They taught their children that work 
itself was a thing fit only for slaves. To those 
Dorians, war was the real business of free-born men, 
and they did all they knew how to do to fit themselves 
to be ready for war at all times and to keep their 
bodies strong and hardy. 

Unlike the people of Athens, who loved to travel 
and to welcome strangers to their growing city, 
43 


44 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


these new masters of the Spartan state preferred 
staying at home, unless war called them away; and 
they showed but scant good will to outlanders and 
wayfarers who crossed the mountain barriers into 
Sparta. 

The first king of Sparta under the Dorian rule 
was Aristodemus. He had been one of their leaders 
in winning the country, and when he died his twin 
sons were given joint rule over the Spartans. This 
began a custom which was long followed in that 
country—the custom of having it governed by two 
kings. When either king died his share of authority 
went to his son, or to his nearest heir. By this plan 
they hoped to avoid putting too much power into 
the hands of one man. 

But no amount of planning could keep trouble and 
discord out of Sparta. As time passed things came 
to be unevenly divided. Some of the Spartans grew 
poor and had no longer either slaves or Helots to 
work for them, nor any land of their own by which 
to live. Having been brought up to consider work 
a disgrace to a free citizen, they were not willing to 
turn in and set their hands to earning a living. In¬ 
stead, these poorer Spartans gathered together in 
armed companies and took by force whatever they 
happened to want or need from their richer neigh¬ 
bors, who had plenty of slaves and goods. Nobody 
seemed strong enough to punish them. All these 
things brought about many riots and made the Spar¬ 
tans bitterly discontented. They felt that things 
were going badly with them, yet they could not see 
how they were to be mended. 

The old traditions declared that at last one of 
these street fights ended in the death of one of their 


SPARTAN LAWS AND CUSTOMS 


45 


kings, who was stabbed by a rioter as he was trying 
to persuade the people to end their brawling and 
go to their homes in peace. This was in the latter 
part of the ninth century B. C. 

The stories went on to tell how, through this 
murder of a king, it came about that Sparta was 
brought under far stricter laws than at any time 
since the Dorians had conquered the land. They 
told how Polydectes, son of the murdered king, died 
soon after his father and left his kingly inheritance 
to his new-born son. As the child would not be old 
enough to rule for years to come, his uncle, Lycur- 
gus, younger brother of Polydectes, was made his 
guardian and appointed to act as regent for him. 

Lycurgus was so loved and honored by the Spar¬ 
tans for his wisdom and honesty that many of them 
would gladly have seen him king in place of the 
baby Charilaus; but he would not accept the honor. 
So far was he from coveting power that, on hearing 
that his enemies accused him of planning to kill the 
child-king, he gave up his office as regent and left 
Sparta, meaning to stay away until Charilaus had 
grown up and married, and had a son of his own to 
be king after him. 

Even when Lycurgus was far away from his own 
country, traveling through Crete and into Asia and 
Africa, he kept studying the laws, good and bad, and 
the manner of ruling in each country he visited. He 
hoped always that some day his beloved Sparta 
might profit greatly by what he was learning while 
in exile. 

At last conditions became so unhappy in Sparta 
that its kings and chief citizens sent for Lycurgus 
and begged him to return and help them bring order 


46 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


to the country. So he went back and planned out 
for them an entirely new set of laws. These were 
harsh in many ways, but he meant them for the good 
of Sparta, and he was able to win his friends to 
uphold what he wanted to do. In the end, he man¬ 
aged to get all the people to accept the new laws 
and to live by them. These laws, once in force, made 
Sparta a very different place to live in, and through 
them it grew powerful among the city-states of 
Greece. 

The Odyssey gives a clear picture of the royal 
palace of King Menelaus as it was when Telemachus, 
the son of Ulysses, came to Sparta seeking news of 
his lost father. Though he was a king’s son him¬ 
self, with a palace-home in which he had grown up, 
and with treasure-chambers full of riches, yet his 
heart was filled with wonder at “the flashing of 
bronze through the echoing halls, and the flashing 
of gold and of amber and of silver and of ivory.” 
In the great vaulted hall of Menelaus the chairs 
were of carved wood, and the cups and bowls and 
platters on the polished tables were of gold and 
silver. Fair Queen Helen sat spinning violet-blue 
wool with a wonderful golden distaff, and on the 
floor were rugs of soft wool. It seemed to the boy 
Telemachus as if he had come into the court of Zeus 
on Mount Olympus, with the gleaming as of sun¬ 
light and moonlight from all the gold and silver, and 
with the walls of scented wood. 

In the Sparta of Lycurgus there was small space 
for gold and silver and beautiful carvings, for bed 
coverings of thick, soft wool, or even for royal feast¬ 
ing. Instead, Sparta was to be rich in men and 
women with brave hearts and strong bodies, to 


SPARTAN LAWS AND CUSTOMS 


47 


whom the good of the state must mean more than 
their own ease and comfort. Small wonder that at 
first Lycurgus came near being stoned to death by 
some of the angry nobles. Finally he brought them 
all to agree to follow the laws as he taught them. 
These laws were not written out, but were learned 
by heart by the men, who taught them in turn to 
the children. 

Lycurgus began by giving every free Spartan man 
the right to vote, and to have a voice in the law 
making. There was also to be a council or senate of 
thirty, to keep the balance between the power of 
the kings and that of the people, and to see that 
justice was done to all. 

Then came a hard part of his work, which was to 
make the rich Spartans agree to a new division of 
the land. It was all to be divided evenly among all 
the free citizens—the share of each man being just 
large enough to yield a year’s supply of oil and 
wine and grain for one family. He wanted to divide 
up the other kinds of property, but that was almost 
impossible. The best he could do was to forbid the 
use of all gold and silver coin, and to allow only 
money of iron to be coined in its place! This meant 
that few traders would bring rich wares into Sparta 
to sell, for the iron money, in which they would 
have to take their pay, would not pass in any other 
country. The Spartans would now have to make 
whatever they wanted themselves. Their houses too 
were to be built of wood “wrought only by the axe, 
and with gates and doors smoothed only by the 
saw.” Their furniture was to be of the simplest 
things needed for daily use. 

So that the young Spartans should grow up liv- 


48 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


ing the plainest of lives, the laws of Lycurgus began 
at the beginning, with the babies just born. It seems 
bitterly cruel to us today to read that when a little 
son or daughter was born to a Spartan family, the 
father must take it to certain elders of his tribe 
for them to say whether it was to be allowed to live 
or not. If it seemed to them strong and hardy, they 
would give it back to the father and tell him to 
bring it up well, for Sparta. Then they would set 
aside a share of the public land for it. But if it 
was feeble or slightly crippled, it was carried to a 
dark chasm in the side of Mount Taygetus and left 
there to die, as useless to the state! Spartan boys 
and girls were not allowed to live with their parents 
after they were seven years old, and even before 
that they had little petting or gentle care. Every¬ 
thing was done with the purpose of making them 
sturdy and fearless. 

The reason for all this was that Lycurgus thought 
only of making the state a strong power. In order 
to do that, he held that each man and woman in it 
must be trained for perfect health and strength. 
Those who could not stand such hardships, he 
thought, were better out of the way. 

The ones who grew up to be men and women were 
certainly a tine people, so far as bodies and bravery 
went. They were given few lessons in “book learn¬ 
ing,” as we know it; but they knew all the old hero 
tales by heart, and were taught to sing them. They 
learned to dance and run and to endure all sorts of 
pain and weariness without complaint. It was even 
thought right that the young lads should learn to 
steal food for themselves or else sutler hunger, so 
that in time of war, when they might not be able to 


SPARTAN LAWS AND CUSTOMS 


49 


carry food with them, they would know how to pro¬ 
vide for themselves! 

All these young boys lived in public buildings, as 
children of the state, under the care of teachers who 
were to make them strong men for Sparta. The 
girls, too, were given lessons in athletic sports to 
make them hardy and self-reliant. None of the 
Spartans, old or young, were supposed to wear 
soft, rich clothing, except when going to war. Then 
the young warriors were allowed to put oh costly 
armor and fine garments. In war time, too, they 
were provided with better food, and their officers 
were not so strict. Going to war was made to seem 
a holiday to them. 

As to everyday living, it was very simple. Grown 
men, like young people, ate nearly all their meals 
in a public dining hall, where the food was of the 
plainest kind. There would be cheese and coarse 
bread, a little dried fruit and a sort of black broth. 
They hardly ever had meat or fish, unless one of 
them had been out hunting, when he would send 
part of his venison or other game to the public 
table, and then he himself could dine at home. 

Boys were all trained to keep their tempers, even 
when it was a hard matter. They were taught to 
speak seldom, and only if they had something worth 
while to say. Indeed it was no easy thing to be a 
boy in Sparta. 

Considering all these things, together with the 
training in wrestling and throwing spears and shoot¬ 
ing with bows and arrows, it is no wonder that 
Sparta soon became a state so strong that she needed 
no walled fortress. Lycurgus said of her citizens 
that they were the defenses of Sparta. 


50 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


By the new laws the free citizens of Sparta also 
shared equally among* them all the Helots who were 
held in slavery, so that each one had servants and 
farm laborers to work his share of land. If the 
masters had to live what men today would think a 
life without any comforts, their Helots had a much 
harder time. While each of them called some one 
Spartan citizen his master, yet all the Helots were 
really owned by the state, which could do with them 
whatever the Council said was best for Sparta and 
its people. 

For his master, the Helot must do every sort of 
hard work. He must serve him at the public tables, 
carry his armor and weapons when he was going 
to war, and toil as he was bidden, however tired he 
might be. It was a common custom for a Spartan 
master to force one of his Helots to drink too much 
wine, so that the young lads might see for them¬ 
selves, as a lesson, how shamefully and foolishly 
a drunken man would act. The Helots were given 
whippings each year to remind them that they were 
slaves. Their masters had no power to set them 
free; though if they went into battle with those 
whom they served and fought well against the ene¬ 
mies of Sparta, the state would sometimes give them 
a certain liberty as reward. But if the Council 
thought that there were getting to be too many 
Helots, and that they might realize their own 
strength, men would be sent out secretly through the 
country to kill those whom they thought were not 
contented. 

It is not strange that the free Spartans felt the 
need for keeping close watch on the Helots, lest 


SPARTAN LAWS AND CUSTOMS 


51 


some day they should band together and tight their 
way to liberty. 

At last, when Lycurgus felt that all was going as 
it should in Sparta, he laid a plan to prevent any 
changes. He called the citizens to a great public 
meeting and told them that it was needful for him 
to take a journey and ask advice from the oracle 
of Apollo at Delphi. He asked each of them to give 
his sacred word to keep the laws just as he had 
made them until his return. They promised at 
once, and Lycurgus went away contented. After he 
had visited the oracle and had there been told that 
the Spartans would prosper so long as they kept 
his laws, he resolved never to go back. He was an 
exile from his own homeland for the rest of his life. 
Sparta kept those laws through many generations. 
In fact it was five hundred years before any real 
change was made in them. 

Just over the mountains to the west of Sparta, 
beyond Mount Taygetus, was a lovely country called 
Messenia, whose chief defense was the great city 
fortress of Ithome, one of the highest hill forts in 
all Greece. From the summit of Ithome one could 
see all over Messenia, of whose rich soil a poet sang 
that it was “good to plow and good to plant.” But 
its people might have been glad if it had been less 
beautiful, less fertile, and so .less attractive to 
covetous invaders. 

But the Messenians had no suspicion of danger to 
themselves. They came of the same race as the 
Spartans, and for a time the two states were friend¬ 
ly neighbors to each other. They kept certain festi¬ 
vals together at a temple just between the two coun¬ 
tries. 



Apollo, the God of the Sun 
T he most beloved god of the Greek world. 






SPARTAN LAWS AND CUSTOMS 


53 


But Sparta was growing ancl needed more land to 
share among her free citizens. Messenia would be 
well worth having, if only a good excuse could he 
found for making war. So when some young me 
of Messenia saw at this temple certain girls from 
Sparta whom they wanted for wives, and carried 
them off into their own country, Sparta was more 
than eager for a fight. Without giving any warning, 
she sent an army into her neighbor’s country, took 
the town of Amphea and killed all its people. This 
brought on the First Messenian war, lasting close 
onto twenty years, from 743 to 723 B. C. The Mes- 
senians fought bravely to save their country, but 
they had not the training of the Spartan warriors. 
The war ended in the capture of Ithome; and the 
Spartans made slaves of the Messenians. 

For some time the Messenians submitted to the 
tyranny of the neighbor state. It was about forty 
years before a rebellion sprang up, led by Aristom- 
enes, one of the princes of the conquered state. He 
revived in the Messenians their love of their own 
country so that they rose and drove the Spartans, 
filled with dismay, back over the mountains to within 
sight of their proud city. The Spartans were eager 
for revenge. They asked advice of an oracle which 
told them that Aristomenes could never be beaten 
by them unless they marched against him under the 
command of an Athenian general. So they sent into 
Attica, asking for an Athenian to lead them against 
the Messenians. Athens, instead of picking out a 
warrior, sent them, as leader, a lame singer named 
Tyrtaeus. At first the Spartans were angry, taking 
his coming as an insult; but they felt otherwise 
when his splendid war songs rang in their ears. 


54 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


They were so aroused that they rushed into battle, 
defeated the invading Messenians and took many 
prisoners home, Aristomenes being one of them. 

These prisoners, instead of being held as slaves, 
were thrown down into a deep pit to die. Aristom¬ 
enes was the only one to reach the bottom without 
being hurt. Instead of giving up hope and staying 
there to starve, he found his way out by tracking r 
fox to its burrowed hole through the hillside. See¬ 
ing daylight beyond, he managed to dig the passage 
larger, until he was able to squeeze through and 
make his way out to freedom and his comrades 
again. 

With their brave prince to lead them, the Mes¬ 
senians kept on with this Second War from 645 to 
631 B. C., until the last of their forts had been 
captured by Spartan forces, and their only hope of 
remaining free men was to leave their dear home¬ 
land and win footholds for themselves in other coun¬ 
tries. Some of them escaped northward into Ar¬ 
cadia, where they had friends; but others sailed 
westward across the Ionian Sea to Italy and Sicily, 
where their colonies grew into cities, of which one, 
Messina, still bears the name of the land from which 
its founders were driven. 


CHAPTER V 


ATHENIAN CODES AND RULERS 

W^ AS ILEUS is the Greek word which means the 
same as king in English. While the men of 
Athens, after the brave death of Codrus, 
would not allow his sons, or their sons after them, 
to inherit that title, yet for a number of years the 
power that had gone with it still belonged to the 
royal family and was handed down from father to 
son. The title of At chon, borne instead of Basileus 
by the ruler, was first meant to carry with it the 
full right to govern the state for life; hut that power 
grew steadily less. The real power was slowly com¬ 
ing into the hands of the people themselves. 

First the nobles, who were jealous, took the lead¬ 
ership of the army from the Arclion and gave it 
to a military commander called the Polemarchos, or 
war leader, w T ho was elected by the nobles from 
among themselves. Then, soon after, the royal 
family was overthrown, and such power as still re¬ 
mained to it passed into the hands of the Medontidae, 
or descendants of Medon, whose house had long held 
high rank among the noble families of Athens. 

But while this meant that the Archon would now 
be a Medontid, the title was no longer to he passed 
down from father to son. Each Archon was elected 
by the citizens, to serve for life; and the citizens 
chose any Medontid they happened to like. 

The next step toward the government of the people 
55 


56 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


by themselves was when the term of each Archon’s 
rule was shortened to a period of ten years, instead 
of his holding the office for life. The final change 
came when the power slipped quite away from the 
Medontidae and the people of Athens elected each 
year nine Archons from among the men of noble 
houses. Of these the First Archon, the Polemarchos, 
and the one in charge of religious affairs held high¬ 
est rank. The other six were called law-givers , and 
were like our own judges. 

The main reason why the nobles were still given 
the high offices in the state was that they alone could 
afford to serve the country without pay. The 
trouble with such a plan was that it put too much 
power into the hands of a few rich families. As 
the laws were given out by the nobles and had to 
be obeyed by the common people, and as the nobles 
could make laws to suit themselves, poor men had 
little chance against them and bitter feeling arose 
between rich and poor. 

At last, unlike the Spartans, the citizens of Athens 
demanded that the laws they were to obey and live 
by should be put down in written words, so that 
everybody could know exactly what they were. Then 
they could tell whether the judges were deciding 
cases according to those written laws. 

The First Archon was given the task of making 
out a clear and just code of laws. This Archon was 
called Draco. He meant to do what he thought was 
for the good of the people. But when, in the year 
621 B. C., he gave out the new laws, they were found 
to be so harsh and severe that the Athenians spoke 
of them as being written in blood, not ink. By hr* 
laws even a tiny theft was punished by death. For 


ATHENIAN CODES AND RULERS 


57 


Draco said that small crimes deserved death, and 
he had no greater punishment for the greater crimes. 
Beside this, Draco had not improved the laws which 
gave rich men so much power over their poor debt¬ 
ors that they could even sell them into slavery, if 
they chose. The end of it all was that in a short 
time Draco was driven out of Athens, and was never 
allowed to return. 

The city-state was now in turmoil. Neither rich 
nor poor men wanted to keep the cruel laws of 
Draco. As a result, all Athens was in disorder for 
want of some cool-headed person with wit and power 
to straighten things out and keep the two parties 
from clashing until a new code of laws could he 
decided upon. 

The nobles and citizens were still looking at each 
other with suspicion when a noble whose name was 
Cylon, the son-in-law of the ruler of Megara, tried 
to seize the power in Athens for himself. He had 
no friends among the people, but he had gathered 
a band of young nobles, and he had the help of 
soldiers from Megara, which was a small but rich 
state near Corinth. With these he managed to reach 
the Acropolis and to make himself master of the 
fortress there, by a sudden surprise. He might have 
won over some of the citizens to his side; but when 
it became known that he had brought in foreign 
soldiers to help him tight against his own country¬ 
men, all Athens grew hot with anger at him. The 
city sent out messengers to all parts of Attica, call¬ 
ing for help to resist him. Soon Cylon and his party 
were penned so closely on the Acropolis that they 
could get neither food nor water. They held out for 
many days, but at last Cylon and his brother con- 


58 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


trived to slip away secretly and escape from Attica, 
leaving their friends and the soldiers from Megara 
to take care of themselves in the best way they 
could. 

Left in this fashion, the friends of Cylon lost 
courage and took refuge in the Temple of Athene. 
Here they were safe so long as they remained inside 
its walls. A temple was holy ground, and no 
Athenian would have dared to force any one from 
its shelter. 

If they had been able to obtain supplies of food 
and water, the men of Cylon might have remained 
safely in the temple; but they were quite as closely 
besieged there as they had been out on the Acropolis. 
For a time, they seemed to think it better to starve 
there than to fall into the hands of their enemies. 
In fact, the priests of Athene began to fear that they 
would die in the temple and so defile the holy place. 

At last Megacles, the Archon, promised the prison¬ 
ers a fair trial if they would leave the temple and 
come down. They agreed, but in order still to be 
under the protection of the goddess, they tied a 
stout thread to her statue in the temple and came 
down to the judges, all holding to it tightly. No 
one ventured to touch them, for fear of making the 
goddess angry; but suddenly, as they reached the 
Temple of the Furies, the little cord parted of itself. 
Then Megacles and his fellow archons, calling out 
that Athene had cast these men off and refused them 
further protection, fell on them and put most of 
them to death. 

There was little peace in Athens after this. The 
friends and families of the men who had taken part 
with Cylon were bitter against Megacles and his 



The Theseum, at Athens 

This is one of the best-preserved of Greek temples. It was named 
after Theseus, the hero-king (p. 120). 
















60 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


clan, the AlcmaeonidaB. There were street fights and 
troubles all the time, and people began to whisper 
that Pallas Athene was displeased with Megacles 
for the way in which he had broken so solemn a 
promise, and that she would never allow the city to 
be at peace until he and all his kinsmen were 
severely punished. So many of the Athenians came 
to believe this, that a great meeting of the citizens 
was held, and the whole clan of the Alcmaeonidse, 
with many of their friends, were banished from At¬ 
tica, never to return. After this the city was con¬ 
sidered to be purified from all that had made Athene 
angry with its people. 

The citizens, tired of the fighting and wrangling, 
may have felt that it was by favor of Athene, who 
was goddess of wisdom, that Solon, the man chosen 
about 594 B. C., to make laws for them, turned out 
to be both wise and gentle. He was one of the few 
men of noble family who had kept himself away from 
the quarrels between the different classes of Athe¬ 
nians. He was rich, but he had never ill treated 
any poor man. So both classes agreed to choose him 
Archon—the wealthy nobles because he was one of 
themselves, the poor because he was honest. 

Solon’s first act sent a wave of great joy and re¬ 
lief through all Attica, for he made it known that 
all who had been sold into slavery for debt were 
set free, and that hereafter no man should be made 
a slave in order to pay his debts. He gave equal 
rights to all the people, allowing them to elect judges 
and juries who should try the causes between them 
in the courts of law, and giving to men who were 
accused of crimes the right to speak in their own 
defense. 


ATHENIAN CODES AND RULERS 


61 


Solon was also quick to repeal Draco ’s cruel laws; 
and only those who had killed their fellowmen were 
considered to deserve a sentence of death. Alto¬ 
gether, he did his best to make all the laws just, so 
that every class of the people should have its rights 
guarded by the state. While he was not able to 
please everybody, yet he was so honest and true of 
purpose that he was loved and respected by all. 
When his work was finished, and peace again ruled 
in Athens, he gave up all office and left the country, 
in order to spend the next ten years traveling and 
studying. 

But even the wisdom and good laws of Solon could 
not unite the two great classes of Athens into one 
party. The Aristoi, or party of the nobles and 
wealthy citizens, felt that they should be of more 
importance than the party of the farmers and the 
common people. The Demos, as this other party 
was called, had long been held down too firmly for 
their liking. Now that the new laws gave them 
rights, and let them have a voice in governing the 
state, their inborn love of self-rule made them un¬ 
willing to yield any point to the Aristoi. Of course 
the nobles, who had so long held all the power, did 
not like this. They stood out for every inch of their 
birthright, saying that men like themselves knew far 
more about real affairs of state than common people 
and stupid country folk, who had never had any 
chance to learn how such high matters should be 
handled. 

All this did not mean that the Athenian people, 
as a whole, were not living their everyday lives, 
just as people of today do who disagree over pol¬ 
itics. In spite of dissensions the Athenians went 


62 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


on holding their festivals, building houses and tem¬ 
ples, and the ships of their merchants went on trad¬ 
ing voyages to other Greek states and to foreign 
countries. The farmers plowed their fields with 
yokes of oxen and sowed wheat and barley. They 
gathered the olives and crushed out the rich, golden 
oil. The women and girls spun and wove soft wool, 
to make warm clothing and bed coverings for the 
winter. The children ran and played in the streets, 
just as little lads and lasses have done in every city 
that was ever built—tossing balls to each other, and 
running races, or hurrying to the open market-places 
to see the wonderful things brought from overseas 
by some strange merchant. And any enemy who 
thought that because the people of Athens were dis¬ 
agreeing among themselves, it would be safe and 
easy to invade Attica, would soon have found out 
his mistake. 

Whoever looks at the map of Greece will see, be¬ 
tween Attica and the Peloponnesus, a deep bay, 
called the Saronic Gulf. Attica runs well around 
the head of this gulf to the west, until it touches 
Megara. Between the two states, right in the curve 
of the coast, is the Island of Salamis. An Athenian, 
standing on the hill of the Acropolis, could see it 
in the distance, almost shutting in the little bay of 
Eleusis, which belonged to Attica. But Salamis was 
in the hands of Megara and, so long as it was held 
by a neighbor state, that neighbor could threaten 
Athens from the island shores. The trouble with 
Cylon had made Athens more covetous than ever 
of Megara, a rich and powerful little state which 
had long prevented the Athenians from taking 
Salamis for their own. 


ATHENIAN CODES AND RULERS 


63 


It was when Solon had come back from his travels 
that Athens, at his urgency, declared war against 
Megara, and sent an army to conquer the coveted 
island. One of the Athenian leaders in this expedi¬ 
tion was Pisistratus, a kinsman of Solon, who fought 
bravely and helped his countrymen to win the 
victory. 

Pisistratus was one of the Aristoi, but he had long 
been friendly with the people of the poorer classes. 
Now that he was being honored as a hero, he began 
to gather a strong party of his own to help him to 
become ruler over Athens. He promised the poor 
citizens even more rights than Solon’s laws had 
given them. By gifts and acts of kindness he sought 
to bring them to his side. At last one day he came 
hurrying into the market-place, lashing the horses 
of his chariot as if he were flying from enemies and 
showing the people many bleeding scratches on his 
face and body. 

“Come! See what the nobles have done to me 
because I befriend you who are poor!” he cried. 
“Some day they will kill me for it!” 

Naturally the common people were greatly 
stirred. They voted Pisistratus a bodyguard of 
fifty men to defend him by night and by day. This 
guard was to be paid by the state, though Solon was 
very much opposed to the idea. However, with the 
feeling of the common people in his favor, their 
hero gathered a bodyguard of many times fifty men; 
and the next news in the streets and market places 
of Athens was that Pisistratus had made himself 
master of the Acropolis, and meant to rule the city! 
This was in 560 B. C. 

His little army was too strong to be resisted just 


64 


THE LIGHT HEARERS 


then, and Pisistratus was wise enough to win friends 
by governing with kindness and justice. Even when 
his enemies got the upper hand for a time, and forced 
him into banishment, he was soon recalled by the 
people. Solon himself had to admit that his kins¬ 
man made a good ruler. 

It was by the orders of Pisistratus, who loved 
books and learning, that the poems of Homer, the 
Iliad and Odyssey, were first gathered together in 
book form, to be read and learned as a whole. He 
was even able to keep peace between the rival par¬ 
ties in Athens, and so brought contentment to all 
the country around. Although he took the power by 
force, it is certain that no better rule than his was 
ever known in Attica. He led the people, rather 
than compelled them to obey him. 

But while Pisistratus seemed to have lived only 
for the welfare of Athens, his two sons, Hippias and 
Hipparchus, who shared the rule after his death, 
had no desire to imitate his goodness. They soon 
became real tyrants, wasting the peopled money for 
their own pleasures, and insulting them. 

Seeing this, two young Athenians, Harmodius and 
Aristogiton, brought together their friends and 
made secret plans to free Athens from these tyrants 
(510 B. C.). At the time of a great religious feast, 
the two young men armed themselves and managed 
to kill Hipparchus. But Hippias was surrounded by 
his own bodyguard, and thus escaped the sword of 
Harmodius, who was cut down and killed. The sur¬ 
viving tyrant made every effort to find out who had 
been in the plot with the two young men. Because 
Aristogiton would not give the names of his com- 


ATHENIAN CODES AND RULERS 


65 


rades, Hippias had him slain without a trial. But no 
one would betray the others of the brave band. 

Hippias continued to rule for a time; but he knew, 
all the while, that the people hated him bitterly, 
and that his enemies were looking for a chance to 
overthrow him. 



The Chariot Race—Checa 





















CHAPTER VI 


THE OLYMPIAN GAMES 

W HILE both the Peloponnesus and the north¬ 
ern part of Greece were divided into little 
kingdoms or city-states, each one jealous of 
its neighbors and anxious to keep its freedom as a 
separate country, yet the people in all these divided 
parts of Hellas belonged to the same race. They 
spoke the same language, had the same customs, and 
believed in the same high gods. When the great 
religious holidays came, they followed the traditions 
of the forefathers of them all, and laid aside their 
quarrels in order to do honor and reverence to those 
mighty gods. 

The Iliad gives a long account of the games held 
by Achilles in honor of his dear comrade Patroclus, 
who had been slain in battle by the Trojan hero, 
Hector. It seems strange to think of chariot races 
and foot races, wrestling and spear-casting for 
prizes, as part of the funeral rites at the death of a 
warrior. But games of this same sort were held at 
appointed places, every year, in honor of the gods. 

This came about because the people of Hellas 
thought so highly of bodily strength and beauty, as 
well as of skill in athletic sports. In a way they 
were giving of the best they had when they came 
together and strove with each other in order to honor 
Zeus, or Apollo, ‘ ‘ the Far-Darter,’ ’ or Poseidon, who 
ruled the sea. 


67 


68 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


The highest prizes given to the victors at these 
games, which were held once in so many years, were 
not purses of gold, or jewels, or even medals and 
cups. They were crowns of wild olive leaves, or 
the leaves of whatever tree was sacred to the god 
in whose honor the games were held. These cost 
nothing, hut no gold could buy them. The honor of 
having been a victor in the sacred games was 
counted a reward great enough in itself, and many 
young Greeks thought it a little thing to give their 
lives to win such an honor for themselves and for 
their home cities. 

On the western shore of the Peloponnesus, north 
of Messenia, and west of that Arcadia where the 
Messenians found friends, was the tiny state of Elis, 
through whose broad plain the river Alpheus runs 
to reach the Ionian Sea. Beside this river is a 
lovely green valley where rugged oak trees give 
shelter, and almond trees are pink with bloom in 
spring. Here the hero Hercules, the son of Zeus 
himself, was supposed to have built a temple for the 
worship of his father, and to have begun the custom 
of holding games there every four years. These 
were the Olympian games. 

In the earliest years of Greek legend and history 
intervals would occur when these games were for¬ 
gotten or neglected. Then some ancient king or 
mighty warrior, who wanted to win favor with the 
ruler of the gods, would put fresh life into the old 
custom by building new temples and restoring the 
old ones, and by holding the games with much 
splendor. 

The temple and sacred grove of Zeus, at Olympia 
in Elis, were regarded as holy places. Whoever had 



© Underwood & Underwood 


Ruins of the Temple of Zeus (or Jupiter) at Olympia 

The columns now standing are of exquisite beauty. Ages have touched 
the snowy marble with warm golden-brown tints, which have but 
added to their charm. 


















































70 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


charge of them was given much power in Hellas. 
Many times the neighboring states were jealous of 
each other, lest one should win some advantage over 
another by taking control of the festival. At one 
time Argos held the upper hand there; at another, 
Elis itself, or else Sparta* The Spartans, whose 
men were such well trained warriors, claimed the 
right of defending the temple if it should ever be 
in danger from invaders. 

The people of Hellas even counted the number of 
years in their history by Olympiads, an Olympiad 
being a period of four years. The actual records of 
these time divisions go back to between seven and 
eight hundred years before Christ, and their legends 
for a much longer time. 

About six hundred years before Christ, the games 
at Olympia had grown to be so important that they 
were much more than just a national holiday. From 
all parts of the known world where Greek cities and 
colonists could be found, men came eagerly to see 
the games, or to strive for the olive crown. 

As each fourth year came around, and the new 
moon nearest to midsummer was seen in the sky, a 
truce was proclaimed through all Hellas, so that 
men coming to the games could pass through hostile 
states in perfect safety. So strict was this truce, 
and so sacred, that when the Spartans once broke 
it, they were forbidden to enter the games that year. 
No armed warriors were allowed to tread the soil 
of Elis during the sacred month of the Olympian 
games; and the peace heralds forbade all war be¬ 
tween Greeks while the great festival in honor of 
Zeus was going on. 

Those who came to Olympia at the time of the 


THE OLYMPIAN GAMES 


71 


games often brought rich gifts to its shrines; and 
it was the glory of a city, or even of a state, to win 
the honor of rebuilding any temple there which had 
begun to show signs of age. The greatest sculptors 
and painters would give their work to make these 
noble buildings more beautiful, and the statues of 
those who had won in the games were placed in the 
Altis, or sacred grove, so that their names should 
never be forgotten. Some of the most wonderful of 
all the antique statues known today have been found 
in the ruins of Olympia; among them that most beau¬ 
tiful one of Hermes, messenger of the gods, carved 
by the great sculptor Praxiteles. 

Young men and boys began training long before¬ 
hand for victory in the Olympian games; and when 
the best were chosen from those in a city, a town, 
or even some mountain village, they journeyed to 
Elis with eager hearts, each one knowing that he 
was holding the honor of his birthplace in his hands, 
and that he must strive mightily for its credit. 

On that fair and grassy plain, dotted with temples 
of white marble, widely branching groves, treasuries 
belonging to the different states, and the buildings 
for the contests, there was rivalry in other things 
beside athletic sports. Poets and singers came there 
to compete in verse and song, and the names of the 
winners were given glory wherever the Greek tongue 
was spoken. 

But Olympia was not the only part of Greece 
where famous games were held in honor of a god, 
and where the people of Hellas came with reverence. 
Delphi, a rocky valley near the Gulf of Corinth, in 
the northern half of Greece, was held a most holy 
place, “the sanctuary of Hellas.” This sheltered 



Hermes, Messenger of the Gods 

Hermes most fully expresses the character of the Greek people. This 
matchless marble, discovered at Olympia in 1877, is considered the 
finest example of Praxitelean sculpture extant. 






THE OLYMPIAN GAMES 


73 


glen, almost under the cliffs of Mount Parnassus, 
was sacred to the god Apollo. Here was the famous 
oracle, which all Greek nations believed able to an¬ 
swer truly any question asked of it, to which men 
came or sent from all parts of the known world in 
order to get advice, or to have their quarrels decided 
rightly. 

The sacred glen had sometimes been called Pytho, 
and from this old name Delphi was spoken of as 
the holy place of the Pythian Apollo. Here, as at 
Olympia, “pan-Hellenic” (or all-Grecian) games 
were held in honor of a god. But at Delphi it was 
the “Far-Darter” to whom chief reverence was 
paid. 

A temple had stood in the glen from the earliest 
ages, but at the time when the Alcmseonidse were in 
exile from Athens, the old building had been burned 
down. Hippias was then still tyrant over Athens, 
and the kinsmen of Megacles knew that they would 
have no hope of returning there while he was in 
power. So they tried to win favor with the Atheni¬ 
ans by undertaking to rebuild the sanctuary of 
Apollo, especially dear to the men of Attica, at the 
least possible cost. Not only did they raise a beau¬ 
tiful temple, according to the plans given them, but 
they added a front of purest Parian marble at their 
own expense. 

This generous gift won the good will of the priests 
of Apollo at Delphi, and they gave out the sayings 
of the oracle in such a way that certain Spartan 
nobles, who had come to get advice for their own 
country, were made to believe that Apollo wanted 
Sparta's aid in driving Hippias and his party out 


74 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


of Athens, so that the Alcmaeonidae might return in 
safety. 

Hippias had few real friends in Athens. The mo¬ 
ment the people of that city knew of the Spartans’ 
willingness to help, they took heart and joined with 
those one-time enemies in driving Hippias to take 
refuge on the Acropolis, and blockading him there. 
He held out for a few days. In the meantime he 
tried to send his children secretly out of the country, 
but they were caught by his enemies. Hippias was 
forced to promise that if they were restored to him, 
he would leave Attica within five days. 

The tyrants had fallen, and Athens was free! 

Hippias fled to Sigeum, a fortress on the coast of 
Asia Minor, which had been won and lost by the 
Athenians, in old days, and had been retaken for 
Athens by Pisistratus. Here he lived with his fam¬ 
ily, which was sentenced never to return to Athens. 

The title of “ tyrannos,” or tyrant, had once 
meant only a man who had taken the highest power 
in a state by his own strength instead of by inherit¬ 
ance or by right of election. But by the actions of 
Hippias and Hipparchus the word had come to mean 
a cruel and selfish ruler who must always be the 
worst enemy of the people over whom he held power. 

Almost as old as the pan-Hellenic games at Olym¬ 
pia and Delphi were those held every second year 
in honor of Poseidon, or Neptune, close to the city 
of Corinth. These became famous as the Isthmian 
Games, because they took place on the Isthmus of 
Corinth, the narrow neck of land only five miles 
wide, between the Corinthian and Saronic Gulfs. 
Much of the power of the rich and ancient city of 
Corinth came from its position in this place, where 



© Underwood & Underwood 


Athletes ’ Entrance to the Stadium at Olympia 

Here were held the celebrated Olympic games. Spectators from all 
parts of the world crowded to these festivals. 








76 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


all who traveled by land between northern Hellas 
and the Peloponnesus must pass, and perhaps pay 
tribute. 

Besides this, Corinth held two ports, one on each 
of ‘ ‘ the two seas.’ 9 It is no wonder that she became 
great and powerful as a city of merchants. Today 
there is not much left of the rich old city, which was 
noted far back in the time of Homer. A new Corinth 
has grown up nearby, for such a site is just as valu¬ 
able in this century as it was in those far-off ages, 
three thousand years before railroads and steam¬ 
ships had been dreamed of. 

Other pan-Hellenic games were held every second 
year at Nemea, on the plain of Argos. These, like 
the ones at Olympia, were in honor of Zeus, and 
three slender upright columns still mark the de¬ 
serted ruins of his temple there. 

There were still other games and high festivals 
held in many parts of Greece, and among her islands 
and far colonies; but these four had the highest im¬ 
portance among the people of Hellas, and were kept 
up for hundreds of years. 


CHAPTER YII 

THE GREEK COLONIES IN ASIA MINOR 


O VER on the coasts of Asia Minor the Greek 
colonies were growing in number and size, 
whether Athens and Sparta and their other 
mother-states were at peace or fighting battles. The 
most important of these colony countries were 
iEolis, Ionia and Doris. All three took their names 
from the native lands of their first settlers, just as 
provinces and towns in our own country were named 
hv early French and English colonists for the places 
from which they had come, or for people there. 

In the same fashion that Boston, New Hampshire, 
New York and New Orleans were named in honor 
of Boston town and Hampshire in England, and of 
the Dukes of York and Orleans, Hilolis, the farthest 
north of these Greek colonies, was called for one of 
the little liill-parts of Thessaly, up to the north of 
the Greek mainland. 

Ionia, which ran along the coast just south of 
iEolis in Asia Minor, was the land settled by that 
nation whom the Dorians had driven out of the 
Peloponnesus. And the seacoast still farther south 
than Ionia, with many islands near its shores, was 
settled, not long after, by other adventurers from 
little Doris in the Greek mountain-country. The 
Dorians were bold sailors, and even before the tak¬ 
ing of Sparta, a tribe of them had conquered and 
77 


78 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


settled in the large island cf Crete. The people of 
Corinth, too, came of Dorian stock. 

With all the tribe and clan feuds, it is easy to see 
how little wars and quarrels would often spring up 
from small causes. Yet when any outside invasion 
threatened Hellas as a whole, men of Greek blood 
everywhere stood shoulder to shoulder, forgetting 
all their grudges for the time, while they fought for 
the freedom of their fatherland. 

None of these colonies held land running very far 
back from the seacoast. AEolis was like nothing 
more than a narrow fringe along the western shores 
of Phrygia and Mysia, inland countries whose early 
inhabitants had claimed kinship with the Greeks of 
Hellas. But, like Lydia and Caria, to the south of 
them, these kingdoms of Asia Minor were beginning 
to fall into the power of a nation far away to the 
east of them all. Persia was growing very strong, 
and was reaching out toward the Mediterranean. 
Soon the Greek cities along the AEgean coast of 
Asia would feel her grasp. 

Croesus, the king of Lydia, who had been the friend 
of Solon, and who was famous for his immense 
wealth, had shown much kindness to the Greeks in 
Asia. For long years his kingdom had made a sort 
of barrier between Greece and the Assyrians. Even 
when the power of Assyria and Babylon began to 
crumble into dust, no one dreamed that Lydia was 
not strong enough to stand forever between Hellas 
and the “Medes and Persians.” 

But Croesus, the richest of men so far as gold 
went, was not able to meet the Persians with an 
army powerful enough to beat them back. He was 


THE GREEK COLONIES IN ASIA MINOR 79 


captured by Cyrus the Great, and his country be¬ 
came a province of the growing Persian Empire. 

The story has often been told of how Croesus, 
when taken prisoner by Cyrus, was condemned to 
be burned to death on a great funeral pyre. As 
he lay there bound, waiting for the fagots to flame 
up, three times he cried out the name of “Solon!” 
Cyrus, hearing him, and wondering whether “So¬ 
lon” was the name of some unknown god on whom 
he was calling for aid, asked the Lydian king how 
this Solon was to help him. Croesus answered that 
he was remembering in sorrow the counsel of Solon, 
who had visited him when he was rich and powerful. 
The noble Athenian had told him that it was wiser 
not to be proud of great wealth until he knew how 
his life would end. 

When Cyrus heard this, it is said that he so rev¬ 
erenced the wisdom of Solon that for its sake he 
spared the life of his prisoner. 

With Lydia fallen, the Greek cities on the coast 
would have to bow before the might of the Persian 
Empire. When Cyrus had first started on his 
march against Lydia, he had sent a message to a 
band of Ionian soldiers who served Croesus, inviting 
them to come over to his side. They had refused, 
and for that reason Cyrus felt little good will toward 
the Ionian cities. One by one, in the years 546- 
544 B. C., the Greek colonies fell under the rule of 
Cyrus, and their men were made to serve in the 
Persian army, whether they liked it or not. They 
sent messengers across the sea to Sparta, at that 
time the strongest state in Greece, asking for help; 
but Sparta had already refused to send men or 
ships to aid Croesus of Lydia in his losing fight 


80 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


against the Persians. She made no move now to 
help the Greek cities on the far side of the iEgean 
Sea. Sparta indeed cared for what went on in 
Sparta, and for little outside, so long as her own 
freedom was not in danger. 

Out of curiosity, however, the Spartans did send 
a single ship to the Ionian coast to find out secretly 
what was likely to happen in Asia Minor, and what¬ 
ever could be picked up about the plans and power 
of Cyrus. It is said that a noble Spartan who was 
of the ship’s company went inland to Sardis, where 
Cyrus was at the time. There, in the king’s own 
palace, he stood up and faced him without fear, and 
warned him not to harm any of the Greek colonies, 
as his own countrymen, the men of Lacedaemon (an 
old name of Sparta) would not allow it. The Per¬ 
sians only laughed at this, as a jest, and pretended 
to ask each other who these same Lacedaemonians 
could be. The kings who ruled the Persian Empire 
after the time of Cyrus learned the answer to that 
mocking question, at their own bitter cost. 

As there was no other help for them, the Greek 
colonies had to submit for the time. They had to 
pay tribute to the great Cyrus, and to own him as 
their over-lord. In time of war they were called on 
to furnish soldiers for the service of their conquer¬ 
ors. Yet they were fairly treated and given justice, 
so their merchants went on trading and growing 
rich. These coast cities were like doors between the 
Far East and the remote western parts of the known 
world. Through them came and went the buyers 
and sellers of goods from the ends of the earth. 

Cyrus died and after him ruled his son, Cambyses, 
who went with a great army and conquered Phoe- 


THE GREEK COLONIES IN ASIA MINOR 81 


nicia, Egypt, Cyprus and Cyrene (529-522 B. C.). 
But on his way home Cambyses was killed and there 
was much disorder in Persia. Many different nobles 
tried to seize the empire to break it up and share it 
among them. At last the throne was given to Darius, 
a brave and warlike prince, who brought back order 
with a strong hand. 

It was while Darius was ruling this mighty Per¬ 
sian Empire that Hippias, the tyrant, was driven 
out of Attica with his family and was forced to cross 
the sea and take refuge at Sigeum, that fortress once 
conquered by his father. It was on the northern 
shore of ^Eolis, not far from where Troy had once 
been. Living there, Hippias tried again and again 
to win friends among the Greeks of the different 
colonies, but without any real success. So long as 
he lived quietly, they wished him well, but they 
would not help him to invade Attica. Even those 
who had loved Pisistratus had no wish to see this 
son of his back in power once more. 

The next move of Hippias was to try making 
friends with the Persian officers whom. Darius had 
set in charge over the Lydian kingdom. He won 
favor with the satrap, or governor, whose name was 
Artaphernes, and persuaded him to send a harsh 
message to the people of Athens, ordering them to 
take back Hippias as their ruler. 

The Athenians paid no attention to the commands 
of Artaphernes. As the satrap did nothing more 
than threaten, Hippias was no better off than be¬ 
fore. He now started on the long journey eastward 
to Ecbatana, the chief city of the Persian Empire. 

Cambyses the king had built a great road from 
Sardis in Lydia, once the capital of Croesus, east- 



“The Frieze of the Archers” from the Palace of 
Darius at Susa 

Formed of enameled tiles, this frieze (now in the museum of the 
Louvre) is considered the masterpiece of Persian art. 






















































THE GREEK COLONIES IN ASIA MINOR 83 


ward and southward to Susa, in Persia. Susa, or 
Shuslian, as the Bible calls it, was south of Ecba- 
tana. This royal road had been built so that swift 
messengers could carry word back and forth between 
the outer edge of the empire and the king’s own 
city without delay; and so that armies could march 
quickly along it to put down rebellion. It was more 
than fifteen hundred miles long, and it would take 
a man on foot three months to reach the Persian 
capital from the AEgean coast. 

By this royal road Hippias traveled to the court 
of Darius, where the great king was told of his 
arrival, and where he was given an audience. After 
humbling himself to Darius, he made his petition for 
aid, as a brother king, against the Athenians who 
had cast him out. He must have felt strangely, here 
in the heart of an immense empire, where the daily 
life was richer and more full of luxury than any¬ 
thing dreamed of by the wealthiest Athenians, ask¬ 
ing for help to get back such a tiny corner of Greece. 
But Darius treated him as a prince in misfortune, 
and gave his promise to think over what Hippias 
had asked of him. . 

The Persian king was in no hurry to decide. He 
was already ruler over so great a country that he 
did not care to go into any new war without some 
real cause. He might have kept on feeling uncertain 
about it, had not word come to him that the Ionian 
cities on the coast had risen to cast off his power, 
and that the Athenians had sent them twenty ships, 
filled with fighting men, to help them against the 
Persian satrap. Marching inland together, the 
Athenians and Ionians had reached Sardis, and had 
taken and burned the city of Croesus. Then they had 


84 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


gone back to the coast, met a body of Persian troops, 
fought them and had been defeated. 

This experience had discouraged the Athenians 
and they had sailed for home. They had not been 
of much use to the Ionians, after the one victory. 
But King Darius was not likely to forget that sol¬ 
diers had been sent against his forces by the rulers 
of Athens, and that they had helped to burn one of 
his richest cities. Moreover, on hearing of the up¬ 
rising farther north, the cities of Caria had rebelled 
and a Persian army had been defeated by their 
warriors. 

It was an easy matter for Darius to send a large 
force of soldiers into Asia Minor to crush out every 
spark of defiance there. And the next move of the 
great king was to collect and equip a large fleet of 
ships, full of armed warriors, to sail around the 
northern part of the Aegean Sea and descend on 
little Attica. 

The Persians had no doubt of being successful at 
once, but they counted on victory too soon. A great 
storm rose, when the fleet was near Mount Athos, 
on the Macedonian coast. Winds and waves worked 
together to destroy this first expedition of Darius 
(492 B. C.), and to give the men of Athens time 
to prepare to meet and resist their enemies. What 
was left of the Persian naval force made its way 
back to the Asian coast. But it is said that six 
hundred ships were broken to pieces by that fierce 
tempest. 


CHAPTER VIII 


THE PERSIAN MENACE 

L ITTLE Athens had not been entirely alone in 
sending help against King Darius to the 
Ionian rebels in the year 500 B. C. Along 
the eastern coast of the Greek mainland was the 
large island of Euboea, shutting off Attica, Boeotia 
and Locris farther north from the open iEgean Sea. 
Only a narrow belt of water lay between the two 
shores and, in order to reach Attic soil, ships from 
the east would have to sail for many miles to the 
north or to the south, so as first to pass around 
Euboea. Just across this narrow strip of water, on 
the inner side of the island, was a city called Eretria, 
which had once been a powerful merchant state, one 
whose people had planted colonies in several places 
along the shores of the AEgean. 

Eretria had joined with Athens in answering the 
appeal of the Ionian cities for help. Darius now in¬ 
tended that Eretria should share in the punishment 
to be given to Athens. Both cities had been con¬ 
cerned in the burning of Sardis (499 B. C.), and he 
could not forgive this insult to his pride. He gave 
orders that all Persian cities on or near the sea- 
coasts should make warships ready for his service. 
Trained men were being hurried from the far ends 
of the Persian Empire to take the places of those 
lost near Mount Athos, and freight ships, or trans- 
85 


86 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


ports, also had to be provided for them and for their 
horses. 

In the interval, Darius sent swift galleys, carrying 
royal heralds, to all the free city-states of Greece 
that had so far kept out of the quarrel. From all 
of these the Persian king demanded “ earth and 
water. ” This was a sign which meant that the cities 
yielding to his demand were willing to own him as 
over-lord of all their land and of the sea around 
them. Persia was great and powerful. Asia Minor 
alone, which was only a small part of the Persian 
Empire, was far larger than all the Greek mainland 
and islands put together. It was hard for the little 
Greek states and cities to know what to do, when 
each trading ship or fishing boat that came into 
port had some piece of news about the army of 
Darius, and how it was nearly ready to sail and 
crush all Hellas. 

Many of the Greek states gave the tribute, or 
token of obedience, for which Darius had sent; but 
others defied him and made ready to fight when he 
should come. The men of Sparta, angry that any 
man should try to force them to call him their mas¬ 
ter, when they were free-born people, forgot the 
honor that was always given to a king’s herald, 
which made him sacred for the time. They flung the 
messengers of Darius into a well and into a hole 
dug in the ground, telling' them to take from there 
what water and earth they needed for their master. 
King Darius never saw those heralds again. 

Other messengers took the same demand to the 
Athenians, who were so full of rage at this action 
of Darius that they took the man whom the heralds 
had forced to. translate their words from Persian 


THE PERSIAN MENACE 


87 


into Greek, so as to be understood by the people, 
and put him to death for having insulted his own 
fatherland. 

This defiance from Athens and Sparta did not 
make Darius feel more gentle toward them. He had 
now gathered an army of more than a hundred thou¬ 
sand men, and had given the command to a general 
named Datis, and to his own nephew, Artaphernes. 
Six hundred galleys had been made ready to carry 
this mighty army across to Greece. They set sail 
from the island of Samos, on the Ionian coast near 
Ephesus. 

This time the fleet did not try to go around by 
Macedonia, although that part of the mainland north 
of Greece had submitted to Darius and was even 
willing to give him aid. Instead, it steered rather 
to the southwest, and burned a town on the island 
of Naxos, whose ruler had been a friend of Athens. 
Then the Persian ships sailed on, from one island 
to another, and at last came up the channel between 
Attica and Euboea, keeping close to the island until 
they reached Eretria. This city they burned with¬ 
out mercy. From it they took for slaves all its 
people who had not been killed. 

It is hard to understand why Athens and Eretria 
had not made ready to fight together against the 
Persians, when they had had so many warnings of 
what was coming. Here was the great Persian fleet, 
almost on the shores of Attica, and nothing had been 
done to beat back so merciless a foe. 

With the invaders was Hippias, the old tyrant, 
who hoped to be put in power again over the Athe¬ 
nians who-had cast him out, and to have the pleasure 
of punishing them. But Hippias was bitterly hated 


88 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


at Athens. Miltiades, the general who was now to 
become famous as an Athenian leader, was an enemy 
to all the family of Pisistratus, for they had put his 
own father to death. Miltiades was not the war 
leader (polemarchos) of the Athenian army, but he 
had served for so many years in foreign lands that 
he knew the Persians and their ways of fighting 
better than any other Athenian officer. His advice 
was followed now. 

Sparta had promised her aid when the Persians 
should come, so Pheidippides, the swiftest runner to 
be found in Athens, was sent to carry the news of 
the burning of Eretria to Lacedaemon. It was fully 
a hundred and fifty miles, around by Megara and 
Corinth, and down across the plain of Argos to 
Sparta; but he reached the city of Lacedaemon, 
scarcely having stopped for rest in all the long 
journey. Would Sparta help? Think of the haste 
of this Athenian messenger to reach Sparta, know¬ 
ing that even as he ran the Persian army was land¬ 
ing on the northern coast of Attica, in the Bay of 
Marathon! Yet when his message was gasped out, 
the Spartans shook their heads. They would send 
help, as they had bound themselves to do; but the 
priests had forbidden them to start until after the 
full moon. Athens must wait! 

But the Persians were not thinking about the 
moon. They were not waiting for Sparta to make 
up her mind to act. They landed and camped on 
the plain around the Bay of Marathon. To meet 
their army of nearly a hundred and fifty thousand, 
the Greeks had a force of some nine thousand men! 
The people of Athens were called into solemn as¬ 
sembly to decide what should be done. Some coun- 


THE PERSIAN MENACE 


89 


selecl their staying where they were and defending 
the city from behind its own walls; but those walls 
of Athens had been broken down by the tyrants, and 
could give but poor protection. 

Miltiades, the captain who knew the Persian cus¬ 
toms, proposed that the tiny army should march 
across the hills to Marathon, twenty-five miles away, 
and there strike the Persians. The Greeks, he said, 
knew the country, and could take a strong position 
among the hills. The Persians would find it hard 
to get through the rocky passes with such an enemy 
opposing them. 

Miltiades had his way, and the army set out for 
Marathon in great haste, in order to occupy the 
passes before the Persians should find out where 
they were. On the road, a thousand fighting men 
from Platea joined them. The Plateans could re¬ 
member a time when Athens had helped them to 
cast off their own tyrants. They were now ready 
to go into battle shoulder to shoulder with her little 
army. 

The Athenian forces were commanded by ten gen¬ 
erals, each of whom was supposed to take his turn 
in leading it, for a day at a time. But when Mil¬ 
tiades told his plan to his brother officers, they 
were quick to see how wise it was. They agreed to 
give over to him all their rights of command, so 
that the army would have only one leader to obey. 
Among these brave men were two whose names be¬ 
came famous in the history of Greece. One was 
Aristides, and the other Themistocles. 

The huge host of the Persians had been camped 
on the plain for several days, and its generals were 
making ready to attack Athens both by land and 


90 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


sea. They now sent their horsemen back on ship¬ 
board, ordering the rest of their force to march 
southward through the hill passes. But the Ather 
nians did not wait for them to make the first move. 
The splendid little band swept down on the mass of 
Persian troops, attacking them with such sudden¬ 
ness and fury that the Persians did not know which 
way to turn. The main strength of the Greeks had 
been placed at the two ends, or wings, of their line 
of battle. So when the hard fighting began, those 
Greeks in the middle of the line, where the Persians 
threw most of their men, let the enemy push them 
back toward the hills. But at the same time the 
strong ends of the Greek line were beating back the 
two wings of the Persian army and breaking them 
into a disorderly mob. They were forced to scatter 
before the Athenian wings, which, leaving them to 
save themselves in any way they could, now swung 
together inward behind the Persian center. En¬ 
tirely routed by this move, the enemy tried to reach 
the shore and their ships. But this was no easy 
matter. To the last foot of sea beach the Greek 
warriors pursued them with sword and spear. 

Less than two hundred Greeks had fallen on the 
field of Marathon, but nearly seven thousand Per¬ 
sians lay dead on the plain. Among the slain was 
the old tyrant, Hippias. 

The victory of Marathon was won (490 B. C.), but 
the danger to Athens was not yet over. The Persian 
galleys still held a mighty force, which might reach 
the city by sailing around Cape Suniurn, the south¬ 
ern point of Attica. That the city might not be 
taken by surprise, a Greek soldier, who had fought 
manfully through the battle, and who had been 


THE PERSIAN MENACE 


91 


wounded by the Persians, turned and sped swiftly 
back through the passes and on to Athens, without 
waiting even to cast off his heavy armor. That road 
from Marathon to Athens is twenty-five miles long, 
but the gallant messenger never stopped once to 
rest until he staggered through the city gate, and 
there, shouting out the word of triumph and warn¬ 
ing, he sank dead in the market-place, giving his life 
to bring the news in time to save the city. Some 
histories give the name of this hero as Thersippus, 
but others call him Eucles. 

Miltiades, pausing to watch the Persian fleet move 
southward, saw bright signals being flashed from 
the shore to the ships, by some spy or traitor. He 
believed them to be giving word to the enemy that 
Athens was unprotected, and might be surprised. 
So he hurried his force quickly southward again. 
On the way, he met the Spartan warriors coming 
to join in the defense. Together they reached the 
shores of the Saronic Gulf just as the Persian fleet 
came in sight around Cape Sunium. But the enemy, 
seeing the shores held by Greek forces, kept away, 
and before long put to sea again. They had not the 
courage to risk another fight like Marathon, and so 
had set sail for Asia! 

Over the hundred and ninety-two Greeks who had 
fallen at Marathon the Athenians raised a high 
mound, which can still be seen on the plain. Of the 
weapons and shields of bronze, taken from the dead 
Persian soldiers, a great statue of the goddess 
Athene was cast and set up on the Acropolis. In 
memory of the same triumph, a beautiful little treas¬ 
ure-house of white marble was built at Delphi, paid 
for out of the gold and jewels found bn the battle- 


92 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


field; and the ruins of this building have lately been 
discovered. 

Miltiades, who was given much of the honor of 
the victory, was not yet satisfied with his own deeds. 
He asked permission of the Athenian citizens to take 
seventy ships and attack the island of Paros. Paros 
had given an armed ship to the fleet of Darius and 
so must be counted an enemy to Athens. Miltiades 
was allowed to go, hut after reaching Paros he was 
unable to take the city, though he kept up the siege 
for nearly four weeks. Forced at last to give up his 
plan, he returned to Athens, wounded and in dis¬ 
grace. 

While he was away, word had gone abroad among 
the Athenians that Miltiades had planned this ex¬ 
pedition to satisfy a grudge of his own against the 
people of Paros. So when he reached Athens again, 
Themistocles and other citizens accused him of wast¬ 
ing the money of the state, and of leading the people 
to believe things which were not true. The judges 
found him guilty, and sentenced him to pay a large 
fine. He could not raise the money and died in 
prison.. Even his dead body was kept back from his 
son, who wished to bury it, until he had contrived to 
borrow fifty talents and pay his father’s fine. 

The two Athenians to whom the people now looked 
for wise leadership were Themistocles and Aristides. 
Both these generals had fought at Marathon, and 
they well knew that Darius would not be likely to 
give up his intention of conquering and punishing 
Greece. But their ideas as to the best way of making 
Athens too strong for him were not the same. 

Themistocles, whose foresight had often done good 
service to the state, believed that many strong ships, 


THE PERSIAN MENACE 


93 


able to defend the coasts of Attica from any enemy 
who should come, were needed more than anything 
else. Next to these, he advised that great walls 
should be built from Athens to the harbor of Piraeus, 
about four miles away, so that the warships would 
have a safe and strong shelter, and so that the road 
from the harbor-town up to the city itself could 
always be well defended, and the city kept supplied 
with such provisions as were brought to her markets 
by sea. The Piraeus itself, too, should be fortified. 

Aristides, on the other hand, advised the Athenians 
to think more of raising a large army and of keeping 
it always ready for the defense of the state. This, 
he told them, was far more needful than building 
ships could be. Some of the citizens agreed with 
Themistocles, others upheld the words of Aristides. 
The dispute grew so fierce that there was grave 
danger of riots and civil war among the people them¬ 
selves over the question how to meet the Persians 
when they should come. 

Finally Themistocles, whose party was the 
stronger, brought about the banishment, or ostra¬ 
cism, of his rival; and Aristides had to leave Attica, 
in spite of his love for his country and his name for 
justice and honesty. 

This ostracism was a custom of the Athenians by 
which they could rid the state, for a time, of any 
man whom the body of citizens thought was dan¬ 
gerous. An assembly would be held, and each man 
present would be given a shell or piece of broken 
pottery (ostraJcon ). On this the citizen marked the 
name of the person whom he wished to have banished 
from Attica, after which he dropped it into a great 
urn. The shells were then sorted and counted, and 


94 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


the man whose name had the most votes against it 
was given ten days in which to leave the country. 
He might not return again for ten years; but he 
still remained a citizen of Athens and kept his prop¬ 
erty. To make sure that a few discontented citizens 
should not hold meetings and pretend that ostra¬ 
cisms voted by them were fair, the law would not 
banish a citizen unless at least six thousand votes 
had been cast. 

On the day when this Assembly took place, Aris¬ 
tides himself was asked by a country fellow to mark 
the name on his ostrakon, as he himself did not know 
how. “What name shall I write on it?” asked Aris¬ 
tides. “Put down Aristides,” said the countryman, 
who had never before seen the good general and 
did not know him. “Is he your enemy? How has 
he harmed you?” Aristides questioned him. 

“He has never done any wrong to me,” the man 
said, “but I have grown tired of hearing him called 
‘Aristides the Just / ” 

Without making any protest, and without telling 
the man who he was, the Athenian general wrote 
his own name on the ostrakon, and saw it put into 
the urn. Within a few days he had gone away into 
banishment, having committed no crime but that of 
having been too anxious to serve his dear land in the 
way he thought right. 


CHAPTER IX 

XERXES AND HIS ARMIES 


S EVERAL things worked together in the minds 
of the Athenians to lead them to allow Themis- 
tocles to carry out his plans for making Attica 
a strong sea-state. The little country was bounded 
by the sea on three sides and could be defended by 
ships far better than by an army, marching here and 
there, up and down hill, to encounter an enemy that 
would be most likely to come in ships. 

The long walls from the city down to the Piraeus 
were begun, as well as the building of a fortress at 
the harbor itself. Much of this work was started 
even before the Persians landed at Marathon and 
were defeated there; so Themistocles was only urg¬ 
ing on what had already been planned. But none 
of these walls was high enough, then, to be of any 
real use in case of a siege. After Marathon the work 
stopped, for there was a great deal of childish 
squabbling in Athens, and the different parties could 
not agree as to what was best to.be done, either about 
the building of long walls or of ships. 

They might have gone on in this way for years 
without coming to a decision, if two things had not 
happened to forward Themistocles ’ plan for making 
the fleet stronger. Athens had an enemy close at 
hand, of whom she was jealous. Right in the middle 
of the Saronic Gulf, in fair sight from the Acropolis 
95 


96 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


itself, was the island of AEgina, whose people be¬ 
lieved it to be the chief sea-state in Hellas. 

AEgina had been one of the states which gave 
44 earth and water” to the heralds of Darius; and 
when the Persian fleet was making ready to sail, the 
Athenians had had reason to believe their neighbor 
would go so far as to side with the invaders, rather 
than with her own countrymen. What was more, 
she would be able to hinder the fortifying of the 
Piraeus and the city, and to prevent the finishing of 
the work in time to be of much service. So Athens 
sent a messenger to Sparta, saying that iEgina was 
acting the part of a traitor to Greece, because of her 
jealousy of Athens. To prevent this, King Cleo- 
menes of Sparta sailed for AEgina, seized ten of the 
chief citizens, and put them in the hands of the Athe¬ 
nians as hostages. After that, AEgina did not dare 
to take any part with Persia or against Athens, for 
fear of harm coming to her chief men. 

It was AEgina’s demand for the return of these 
hostages that started a war between the two states 
while Themistocles was trying to gain permission 
to build more stout warships for Athens. On ac¬ 
count of this war he was allowed to go on with the 
work. The men of Athens were the more willing to 
make their navy larger, because of the discovery of 
a rich silver mine in Attica. This put a great deal 
of money into the public treasury, which Themisto¬ 
cles was allowed to use for ships. So before long 
Athens had a fleet of nearly two hundred triremes, 
or great war galleys driven by three banks of oars, 
and built with sharp 44 beaks ’ 9 which could be dashed 
heavily into the side of an enemy’s ship, or so guided 
as to disable the rows of oars. 


XERXES AND HIS ARMIES 


97 


While all these things were happening in Greece, 
Darius had been making ready to send a third army 
and fleet across the AEgean, to wipe out the memory 
of the defeat at Marathon. But the work went on 
slowly, because he had other parts of his vast empire 
to keep in order. At last, four years after the first 
invasion of Greece, Darius died, leaving the throne 
of Persia to his son, Xerxes. 

This new ruler of the i ‘ Medes and Persians’ ■ was 
not so eager and fiery a warrior as his father had 
been; so for some time there was much doubt among 
the Persian courtiers as to whether the plans of 
Darius would ever be carried out. But his cousin 
Mardonius, who had commanded the great fleet that 
had been wrecked under Mount Athos, was strongly 
in favor of a new expedition to avenge the Persians 
killed at Marathon. Many of those in power at the 
court of Xerxes agreed with Mardonius, and they 
urged the king to go forward with the plan. Cer¬ 
tain of the kinsfolk of Hippias, and other banished 
Greek princes who were enemies of Athens, added 
their influence to that of Mardonius. At last war 
was decided on, though it was not until ten years 
after Marathon that the army and fleet of Xerxes 
were ready to move. 

The Persian generals agreed that the Greeks must 
now be attacked by land and sea at the same time, 
and the army was going to be far too large to be 
carried on ships. Yet it was part of the Persian 
rule for invading an enemy ’s country to keep the 
land and sea forces in touch with each other, and to 
have them act together. So, in order that the fleet 
might safely keep abreast of the Persian army as it 
marched around the northern shores of the AEgean 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


98 

Sea, through Macedonia and Thrace, the king sent a 
huge force of workmen to dig a ship canal across the 
neck of land behind Mount Athos. 

The great mountain called Athos rises at the sea¬ 
ward end of a long, narrow peninsula which juts 
down into the AEgean Sea from the coast of 
Macedonia. The storm winds come down from the 
northeast and blow fiercely around it, making it dan¬ 
gerous for ships to pass. But when they were once 
around on the western side of the peninsula, the 
mountain itself would shelter the Persian fleet from 
any tempest that might blow. 

The ship canal, by which they could cross into the 
quiet water without nearing the stormy cape, had 
to be about a mile and a half long. When the work¬ 
men had finished digging it and making it ready for 
the passage of Xerxes’ navy, they were set to build 
a strong bridge over the River Strymon, also in 
Macedonia, so that the army could pass it without 
waiting to be ferried over. And everywhere along 
the roads that would be taken by the army, stores of 
food were made ready beforehand, so that the im¬ 
mense number of Xerxes’ soldiers could be fed. 

An old Greek tale says that when the people of 
Sparta heard how great an army and fleet Xerxes 
was making ready against those Greek states which 
would not bow down to him, some of them feared 
that the gods would be against Sparta in the coming 
conflict, because of their treatment of the heralds 
of Darius. In those days any herald sent with a 
message from one state or king to another was con¬ 
sidered to be under the protection of the gods, how¬ 
ever warlike or insulting might be the words that 


XERXES AND HIS ARMIES 


99 


he had been told to say. Until his errand was com¬ 
pleted, his body must be held sacred. 

In order to turn aside the anger of the gods, two 
young Spartans gave themselves to be a sacrifice, 
if the need came. They crossed the AEgean and 
traveled straight into Persia, day and night, until 
they reached the city where the court of Xerxes then 
was. At the palace of the king they asked for 
audience with him. It was granted, none knowing 
why they came. 

Now, however willing these young men were to 
hold their lives as a gift to their country, they would 
not follow the Persian fashion of bowing down and 
doing homage to the king. They held that a free¬ 
born man could honor none but the gods in such a 
manner. But Xerxes, although a man who was not 
in the habit of controlling his temper, treated them 
with kindness, and asked them for what purpose they 
had come so far into the country of an enemy. 

The young Spartan soldiers told him, without fear, 
that they had come to offer him their lives in ex¬ 
change for those of the heralds whom Sparta had 
thrown into pits and slain, so that all memory of the 
insult might be wiped out. 

The Persian king was so overcome by surprise and 
admiration at their self sacrifice and courage that he 
gave them many rich gifts, and sent them hack to 
Sparta in safety. He would show them, he said, 
that he could he more generous to innocent men than 
the Spartans had shown themselves. 

After things were in fair shape for carrying out 
the Persian plans, Xerxes left his palace at Susa 
and came westward to Sardis, where he spent the 
winter, and where he saw the troops drilled in readi- 


100 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


ness for the war that was to be fought in the spring'. 
Some of the old histories assert that the army and 
navy of Xerxes, together with the slaves and camp 
servants who went with them, amounted to several 
millions of men; but writers of today believe this 
to be a wild fable, told in order to make the courage 
of the little Greek states seem even greater than it 
really was. Scholars who have studied the old 
Greek and Persian records, who know the methods 
of feeding and moving such an army, who have been 
over the country through which it marched, say that 
the land forces must have been about three hundred 
thousand men, and that the fleet was made up of 
some eight hundred triremes. But this force was 
quite large enough to give plenty of glory to any 
little states who could fight against it and be success¬ 
ful. 

This army was gathered from all parts of the 
Persian Empire, and even included soldiers from 
Egypt, which was now subject to Persia. The troops 
all came together on the shores of the Hellespont, 
which is a narrow strait separating Thrace, in south¬ 
western Europe, from the HUolian coast of Phrygia, 
in Asia Minor. Where the Hellespont was narrowest, 
the king had ordered the building of two great float¬ 
ing bridges, made of flat boats held together by 
huge cables, so that stout planks could be laid along 
above them, and thus men and horses and camp 
wagons could all pass from one shore to the other in 
safety. But even as the army was preparing to 
cross over into Thrace, a fierce wind-storm arose 
and broke the bridges to pieces. 

At this setback, Xerxes grew furious. He ordered 
that the Phoenician and Egyptian engineers who had 


XERXES AND HIS ARMIES 


101 


planned and built the bridges should be beheaded. 
This done, he sent men with heavy whips to inflict 
three hundred lashes on the water that had rebelled 
against his commands! 

What the men thought, they would hardly have 
dared to tell aloud. But they obeyed the orders of 
the king. They flogged the waves as they rolled up 
the beach, crying aloud to them: “ So our lord the 
king punishes thee for doing him a wrong!” After 
this they threw chains into the sea, that it might 
know itself the humble slave of the Persian king 
forever after! 

This punishment attended to, the king set a new 
band of clever engineers at the building of still 
heavier and stronger bridges. When they had been 
completed, he had a marble throne erected for him 
on the hillside, where he sat in state for several 
days and saw his mighty army cross into Thrace; 
while his crowded triremes, driven by oar and sail, 
went past the mouth of the strait on their way up 
the coast to meet the army at a place called Doriscus, 
in Thrace. From Doriscus they were to go west¬ 
ward, along the Macedonian coast, always acting 
together. 

The legends which grew up about this expedition 
say that Xerxes ’ great host was so immense that the 
soldiers drank the smaller rivers dry to quench their 
thirst. It is also written in some old records that 
when Xerxes reached the River Strymon he tried 
to win the favor of his own gods by sacrificing to 
them nine young men and maidens, children of the 
Macedonians, who had submitted to his rule. 

Word of all these things came to Athens from 
every direction, and this time the state did not mean 


102 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


to be taken unawares. Peace was made with iEgina, 
for the coming invaders would show mercy to no 
Greek citizens, and the two states knew that it was 
high time to join hands in making ready for war. 
Fortresses were strengthened in every possible way, 
and perhaps the wisest thing the Athenians did, in 
this hour of grave peril, was to recall to Athens 
those brave soldiers, Aristides and others, who had 
been sent into exile because of political jealousies. 
All private feuds were now forgotten. The one 
thought of the men of Athens was to unite in firm 
resistance to the Persians in the coming hour of 
battle. 


CHAPTER X 


THE PERSIAN INVASION 

W HILE lie was still at Sardis, before starting 
north to the Hellespont with his army, King 
Xerxes had followed the example of his 
father, Darius. He sent heralds of his own across 
to the Greek states again to demand “earth and 
water” from them. But this time the heralds did 
not go to Athens nor to Sparta. These were the 
states which he meant to punish most severely, and 
he would give them no chance to repent and ask for 
mercy. 

Athens and Sparta were already looked on as the 
natural leaders of the Greek people in the struggle 
that was ahead of them. The first action of these 
two states was to call a great meeting of men from 
all the Greek states and cities, to advise with each 
other about the best plans for defending Hellas from 
the invading Persians. This was the first real effort 
ever made to bind all the Greek clans and tribes into 
one solid body, working unselfishly for the welfare 
of Hellas. 

Thirty-one states and cities answered the call, and 
the meeting was held near Corinth. There they 
bound themselves to act together as people of one 
nation, and to forget all personal quarrels. They 
also made a vow that any who should submit to 
Xerxes without first making all the resistance in 
103 


104 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


their power, should be punished by having to pay a 
large fine to the shrine of Apollo at Delphi. 

A number of the smaller states and towns, Thes¬ 
saly among them, had kept out of this new league. 
Before binding themselves, they wanted to see how 
things were going to turn out. Most of those who 
held back were in the north, near the borders of 
Macedonia, which was already in the power of the 
Persian king. This does not mean that the northern 
cities and hill states were not really willing to do 
their full share of the fighting, if only they could be 
sure of help from the larger and stronger states 
farther south. What they feared was that northern 
Greece might have to be abandoned, in order to save 
the Peloponnesus. 

The greatest obstacle to this league was the 
memory of long standing feuds between the states. 
Argos and Sparta hated each other quite as bitterly 
as Athens and AEgina; but all saw plainly that they 
would have to depend on one another’s strength and 
counsel, if they were to act effectively together 
against the Persians. 

Next came the question as to which states should 
be given the leadership of the army and navy. 
Everybody admitted that Sparta, whose soldiers 
were so splendidly trained from early boyhood, 
should have control of the land forces. Athens would 
send the largest number of ships and seamen, and 
Athens ranked very high among the sea-states. But 
in order to quiet the jealousy of certain other cities, 
who did not love Athens, Themistocles and the other 
Athenians at the meeting gave up the command of 
the fleet, as well as that of the army, to Sparta. So 
Leonidas, one of the two Spartan kings, was made 


THE PERSIAN INVASION 


105 


general of the allied Greek forces who were to fight 
on land, and a noble Spartan named Eurybiades was 
made admiral of all the ships. 

At first the Greeks hoped to be able to defend the 
passes between Macedonia and Thessaly; but there 
were too many ways through those mountains, and 
not enough men to guard them all. So the troops 
who had been sent to the border of Macedonia fell 
back to the Pass of Thermopylae, where the rugged 
mountain range ended, almost at the edge of the sea, 
like a wall guarding Hellas. 

The name ‘ 4 Thermopylae’’ means “Hot Gates.” 
It was given to the pass from certain hot sulphur 
springs which still bubble up there and from the 
narrowness of the passage along the shore between 
the cliffs and the splashing waves. It was like a 
real gate into Greece from the north. In earlier 
times when there had been small wars between the 
hill tribes of Thessaly, to the north, and the Phocians 
and other peoples to the south of it, rude walls had 
actually been built there to make the place a stronger 
barrier against the raids of the Thessalians. A steep 
mountain track there was, a little way inland, by 
which active men could climb the cliffs and cross to 
the south of Thermopylae without being seen from 
the pass; but it was known only to a few peasant 
folk, and was used more by wild goats than by men. 

King Leonidas marched his little army into the 
Pass of Thermopylae, fully resolved to hold it. There 
was no other open road by which the Persian troops 
could enter Greece. Of his own well-drilled Spar¬ 
tans he had only three hundred with him; but be¬ 
tween six and seven thousand men had been put 
under his command by the allied states. It was not 


106 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


a large force for the defense, yet the pass to be held 
was narrow. The northern strait between Euboea 
and the mainland was guarded by the Greek fleet, 
lying between the Persian army on shore and the 
Persian fleet out in the AEgean Sea. Already a 
furious tempest had wrecked four hundred of the 
Persian triremes. The Greeks believed that the gods 
were fighting on the side of Hellas. 

Some of the soldiers with Leonidas were natives 
of Phocis, the little state just south of the pass. 
These men knew well all the ways through the moun¬ 
tains, and the Spartan king gave them the duty of 
guarding the hidden goat path, lest by some means 
the Persians should learn of it, and try to cut off the 
Greeks by getting around behind them. With the 
rest of his men, Leonidas hastily built up the weaker 
part of the wall in the pass with loose stones; and 
there he waited for the Persians to attack. 

Down out of Thessaly came marching the great 
Persian host, keeping near to the lapping waters of 
the sea as they went along. They had found the 
shore the only road possible for them to take, and 
now, just before them, the mountains came down 
close to it. Here they first came in sight of the band 
of Greeks, waiting for them. The vanguard must 
have halted at seeing them, while the mass of the 
army came crowding along behind them filling up 
the stony strand in front of the pass. 

At first, Xerxes seemed sure that the mere sight 
of his enormous army would fill the Greeks with 
terror, and that they would turn and fly to some 
place of safety. For four days his great hordes of 
warriors waited there, encamped before the pass 
where the shore widened out like a plain, trying to 


THE PERSIAN INVASION 


107 


frighten the men of Leonidas by their presence. Not 
until the fifth day did the Persians move forward 
to attack, and then they were driven back with much 
loss. The place where the fighting had to be done 
was so narrow that only a certain number of Per¬ 
sians could crowd ahead against their enemies. 
Every time they tried it, those who were not killed 
by the Greeks had to retreat, until Xerxes was fu¬ 
rious and panic stricken at the slaying of his finest 
warriors. So far the Greeks had lost hardly any 
men at all. 

The pass might have been held for Greece until the 
Persians themselves tired of the struggle and looked 
for some other way to advance, if it had been only 
a matter of desperate courage on the part of the 
Greeks. Already the soldiers of Xerxes were hang¬ 
ing back. They had to be forced into action by their 
officers, and even by blows with whips. They were 
sure that the gods of Greece were fighting against 
them, and that all their spears and arrows would 
not avail to defeat the force of Leonidas. 

At last, to his shame forever, a false hearted shep¬ 
herd named Ephialtes, who loved gold more than the 
freedom of his native land, crept into the Persian 
camp and offered to betray the secret of the moun¬ 
tain track, if he was well rewarded. Xerxes agreed 
and sent his favorite troops, called “The Immor¬ 
tals/ ’ along the goat path with the traitor. They 
were led by a commander named Hydarnes. 

In spite of their high sounding title, The Immor¬ 
tals had met such valiant resistance in battle just be¬ 
fore that even they had been forced to retreat in con¬ 
fusion. Now they were eager to avenge themselves. 

In the darkness before dawn the Phocians heard a 


108 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


crackling of broken twigs and the faint clash of 
armor. A force many times outnumbering them had 
already scaled the mountain-side, and was hurrying 
down to cut off the men of Leonidas. Scattered like 
so many dry leaves, the Phocians hid themselves 
among the cliffs, while the enemy, as day came, fell 
on the rear of the little Greek army. 

It may have been a handful of the Phocians who 
managed to clamber down the rocky side of the pass 
and warn the Spartan king of his peril; for he 
learned it in time to call his captains together and 
decide how to act. Keeping with his band of Spar¬ 
tans only seven hundred men from Tliespiae and a 
handful of Thebans, he sent the rest of the allies 
back through the pass, thinking, perhaps, to sur¬ 
round the band of Persians who were coming down 
in the rear. But these allies were overpowered and 
nearly all slain. 

Leonidas, with his three hundred warriors and the 
Thespians and Thebans, was still holding the end of 
the pass nearest the main body of the foe. The 
Persians swept against them in full force, and the 
Spartan king and his little company of heroes again 
thrust them backward, and this time took their own 
stand in the plain, fighting desperately. 

Leonidas fell, and the Spartans made a fierce 
effort to protect his body. Two brothers of the Per¬ 
sian king were slain in this struggle, and a great 
number of the Persians were forced into the sea and 
drowned. Up in the pass the Thebans and Thes¬ 
pians were between two bodies of the enemy. At 
last, the few of that brave little army who were still 
able to fight were forced to a hill behind the broken 
wall. Here they made their last stand together, 


THE PERSIAN INVASION 


100 


battling nobly until the last man bad fallen before 
the crushing weight of the Persian force on every 
side. Of the whole company which had remained 
with Leonidas, only one man was left alive. 

Some writers have blamed Leonidas for not re¬ 
treating or surrendering, when the fight for the pass 
was plainly hopeless. But he and his three hundred 
believed themselves struggling to keep the honor of 
Sparta unstained. Many Spartans had felt shame 
because their city had had no share in the glory of 
Marathon. If this little company of Leonidas ’ had 
not held out to the last, Sparta would have been 
looked on as disgraced by all Hellas and even by 
her own citizens. For the stern Lacedaemonian law 
forbade her soldiers to retreat in the face of an 
enemy. The Spartan king had been given the honor 
of defending the pass, and he and his men were will¬ 
ing to die rather than yield their post. 

On the plain of Thermopylae, long after, there stood 
for many years a monument, set up where the little 
army had made its final brave stand. On this stone 
was carved: “Stranger, go tell the Spartans that 
we lie here in obedience to their laws. ’ * 

The army of Xerxes now poured through the pass 
and down through Locris and Bceotia, on its way 
to Athens, plundering as it went. The Greek fleet, 
learning what had happened at Thermopylae, swiftly 
set sail down through the strait for the coast of 
Attica, hoping to reach Athens in time to aid in pro¬ 
tecting the city from the Persian ships. But the 
allies who had been gathering now felt sure that no 
part of Greece outside the Peloponnesus could be 
saved from the invaders. They quite forgot a prom¬ 
ise they had given to defend Boeotia and Attica, and 


110 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


the returning fleet found them busy at the building 
of a great fortified wall from sea to sea, across the 
Isthmus of Corinth, leaving Athens unprotected. 

A hasty message was sent to the oracle at Delphi 
by the Athenians, asking what they should do in this 
time of danger. Word came back for them to trust 
to their wooden walls when all else in the land of 
Cecrops should be destroyed. 

At first there was a dispute over the meaning of 
this saying. Some insisted that they were counseled 
to fight behind a wooden fort on the Acropolis. But 
Themistocles urged them to believe that their ships 
were the wooden walls which would save them. His 
words were finally heeded, and it was decided to 
send all the old men, women and young children out 
of the city and across the Saronic Gulf to friendly 
towns in the Peloponnesus. A small garrison re¬ 
mained to try to hold the sacred Acropolis, with its 
temples to the gods. All the other men took their 
places aboard the triremes, ready to meet the Per¬ 
sian fleet and try the strength of their “wooden 
walls.” 

Up in the Bay of Salamis gathered all the Greek 
ships. Counting those sent in by the allies, there 
was a fleet of nearly four hundred under the com¬ 
mand of Eurybiades. The land forces, camped on 
the Isthmus of Corinth, were led by Cleombrotus, 
brother of Leonidas. 

The army of Xerxes marched into the plain of 
Attica almost as his fleet sailed around Cape Sunium 
and in sight of the doomed city. Except for the 
handful of Athenians upon the Acropolis, deter¬ 
mined to save it if they could, Athens was deserted. 
The Persians swarmed into it and plundered in every 


THE PERSIAN INVASION 


111 


direction, setting tire to the houses and temples when 
they had taken from them what they wanted. Yet 
for two weeks the brave defenders held the Acropolis 
against them, rolling down great masses of stone 
on all who tried to climb the rocky sides of the 
sacred fortress. At last the Persians managed to 
set fire to their barricade, by shooting flaming ar¬ 
rows over it; and in the end the garrison was over¬ 
come and slain, and the temples were sacked and 
burned, as the rest of the city had been. Great was 
the triumph of the Persians! 

The Greeks held a council of war. Eurybiades 
and other commanders were in favor of retreat, 
using the fleet to protect the shores of the Pelopon¬ 
nesus ; but Themistocles, who knew too well that such 
an act would mean the entire loss of Attica and 
upper Greece, pleaded with them. He finally pur- 
suaded Eurybiades that in no place would they be 
so well able to win a naval battle as in the narrow 
channel between the Island of Salamis and the main¬ 
land, where the Greeks knew every rock and shoal. 

His advice was taken and the ships were made 
ready for the coming encounter; yet even now the 
commanders were uncertain, for the approach of 
the Persian fleet showed them how powerful was 
their enemy. 

They were still hesitating when Themistocles, 
knowing how splendidly the Greeks would fight when 
once they knew that they had to, did a bold thing. 
He sent a slave to Xerxes, in secret, with a pretended 
message of warning from himself, the Athenian 
general. In this he seemed to show good will to the 
Persians, and to betray, for that reason, the Greeks’ 
plan to sail away out of his reach in the night. 


112 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


Xerxes, much pleased, at once determined to pre¬ 
vent this, and divided his own fleet, sending part 
around to the western side of the island, to bar the 
way. Of course, this decided matters for the Greek 
captains. There was nothing left for them to do but 
fight, and fight they did, so bravely and fiercely that 
the Battle of Salamis (480 B. C.) will never be for¬ 
gotten. 

The Persian ships, as Themistocles had told the 
captains, were in strange waters, and hindered each 
other ’s movements, so that they fell first into confu¬ 
sion and then into panic. Xerxes, who was watching 
the fighting from a great throne on the shore, saw 
his royal triremes burned and sunk, or forced to 
save themselves by hurried flight. He lost heart, 
withdrew his army by the road over which it had 
come, and he himself returned to Asia Minor by 
land. Even the Hellespont had not remained obedi¬ 
ent to him. The bridge of boats was a shattered 
wreck, and the great monarch and his followers were 
humbly ferried across into Phrygia. 

Xerxes had left Mardonius and a large force to 
hold northern Greece, and to capture whatever else 
they could. Mardonius made an attempt to bribe 
the men of Athens to break away from their allies 
and submit to Xerxes, but they surprised him by 
refusing. To punish them for this, Mardonius again 
attempted to lay Attica waste; but he had to fall 
back hurriedly, for a new Greek army threatened to 
cut him off. 

Sparta and the allies were no longer holding back. 
A force of nearly seventy thousand soldiers was 
being raised, of which the commander in chief was 
Pausanias, the nephew of Leonidas. As he marched 


THE PERSIAN INVASION 


113 


north, he was joined by Aristides, with a fine body 
of Athenian troops, eager to revenge the Persian 
outrages on their city. With this army the allies 
hoped to defeat the Persian host, and to punish the 
city of Thebes, which had welcomed Mardonius and 
allowed him to store provisions there. 

In the other great battles, Marathon, Thermopy¬ 
lae, and Salamis, the Greeks had been the defenders 
of their own soil from invading Persians. Now they 
were to attack the forces of Mardonius, which were 
in a strong position on the River Asopus, near Platea 
in Bceotia, where they could fall back on Thebes in 
case of disaster. 

But the men of Platea were as loyal now as they 
had been at Marathon. They joined the forces of 
Pausanias and Aristides, and fought valiantly 
against the enemy. The battle lasted for several 
days, and the final victory was largely due to the 
splendid discipline of the Spartans. Mardonius and 
many noble Persians were slain. The entire Persian 
camp, with its rich furniture, fell into the hands of 
the Greeks. It is said to have taken the victors 
ten days to bury the dead and divide the booty. 

This great battle of Platea, fought under Mount 
Cithaeron, not only put an end to the Persian power 
in Greece, but really ended all danger of Asia’s in¬ 
vading Europe. The Greeks gave thanks to the gods 
for all their victories, and sent rich gifts from the 
spoil of battle to the shrine of Poseidon at Corinth, 
and to that of Zeus at Olympia. They built a temple 
to Athene on the battlefield of Platea, and to the 
sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi they sent a wonderful 
pillar, made of brazen serpents. This was crowned 
with a golden tripod, and the base of it bore the 


114 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


names of the Greek states whose offering it was. 
This pillar is now standing in Constantinople. It 
was taken to that city, many years after, from 
Delphi. 

Even while the battle of Platea was raging, a 
Greek fleet under Eurybiadas was winning another 
naval battle against the Persians at Cape Mycale, 
near the Island of Samos, on their own coast of Asia 
Minor. This was followed by several bold victories, 
which gave the Ionian colonies courage to form 
themselves into a league with the mother country. 
And when the fleet sailed in triumph back to Athens, 
one of the trophies it brought was the set of chains 
with which the Persian king had fettered the sea! 


CHAPTER XI 

REBUILDING ATHENS 

T WICE, within a short space of time, the Per¬ 
sians had overrun the beloved city of the 
Athenians, destroying everything that came in 
their way and carrying off whatever seemed worth 
the trouble. But the men of Athens, returning from 
Platea, and from service with the fleets, made no 
delay in bringing back their families from the neigh¬ 
boring towns which had sheltered them, with such of 
their goods as they had been able to save in the hur¬ 
ried flight. 

They found few houses in Athens fit to be called 
homes. Many of them were nothing but ruined 
heaps of brick and stone, with here and there a 
charred rafter sticking out. Nor had the temples 
been spared. Nothing was left of the rich offerings, 
or of the statues of the gods. On the Acropolis, their 
sacred hill, only blackened walls remained of its fair 
and honored shrines. The olive tree, said to have 
been planted there by Athene herself when she had 
first taught men to use and reverence it, had given 
Athens the name of “The City of the Olive Crown.” 
Now they could find only the charred stump of it. 
Even the fragments of the old city walls had been 
thrown down. 

Some sort of shelter had to be contrived for the 
people themselves, but almost before they took time 
to clear away the ruins that were all that was left 
115 


116 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


of their fathers’ dwellings, and to build huts from 
the fallen stones and beams to protect them from 
wind and rain, they set about restoring the outer 
walls of the city, lest need should arise for defend¬ 
ing it. Men, women and even little children brought 
stones and helped in the building. Every material 
was used that came to their hands. Fragments from 
the nearest ruins, and even carved stones from old 
graves, were taken for this work, as can still be 
seen today. 

Tliemistocles hurried on the building of this wall 
as important beyond everything. He had good rea¬ 
son, for soon messengers came in haste from Lace¬ 
daemon, to try to hinder the strengthening of the 
city. They said that Sparta wanted the people of 
Athens to join them in tearing down all fortresses 
in Hellas, for fear that some day they might shelter 
invaders. Tliemistocles replied that he would go 
back to Sparta with them and talk the matter over 
with their kings and council. But he gave the Athe¬ 
nians a secret hint to make all possible speed in 
building the wall while he was absent. Then he so 
delayed his journey, and so drew out the dis¬ 
cussion with the Spartans, that before anything was 
decided he had word from home that the new wall 
was high enough to be defended against any enemy 
of the city. 

On learning this good news, Tliemistocles came be¬ 
fore the Assembly of the Spartans and told them 
that Athens now had walls, and could hold her own 
with any one trying to attack her. The Spartans 
must now remember that it was a free people to 
whom they were sending their messages. However 
jealous and angry they were, it was too late for 


REBUILDING ATHENS 


117 


interfering to prevent the building, so the Spartans 
had to keep their resentment to themselves. But 
they did not forget how they had been played with. 

The Piraeus was now to be fortified. A high wall, 
thick and strong, was built around the three sides 
of the harbor, with high watch-towers, covered docks 
for the ships, and storehouses for weapons and all 
materials of war. Later on they would finish the fa¬ 
mous Long Walls, which were to join Athens and the 
Piraeus almost into one town, with the fortified way 
running between the two parts of it. 

But even while these strong defenses were under 
way, the Athenians were eager to restore the beauty 
of the Acropolis, and to provide a new home for their 
patron goddess, Pallas Athene. Her ancient wooden 
image, held in deep reverence, had been hidden by 
her devout priests, and so had escaped the rude 
hands of the Persians. At first, they may have re¬ 
placed enough of the fallen stones and half burned 
beams to make a covered enclosure for this image, 
with an altar on which offerings could be made; but 
they soon laid the foundations of a new temple 
which was to be larger and grander than any that 
had ever been built for her in her beloved city. 

Other temples, too, to other gods worshiped by 
the Athenians, were soon planned and begun by the 
state and by noble citizens. These new temples were 
often built directly on the leveled ruins of the ones 
which had been destroyed in the siege. This is why 
explorers have lately found carvings and inscrip¬ 
tions far older than the buildings from under which 
they have been dug out. Such broken pieces of 
altars and pillars have often given clues to history, 



The Acropolis of Athens Restored to Its Beauty 
I n the foreground stood the colossal bronze statue of Athene. 



























REBUILDING ATHENS 


119 


telling stories that might otherwise never nave been 
learned by people living today. 

Soon, to the joy of all who loved their city, it 
was seen that a strong leafy shoot was rapidly grow¬ 
ing up from the root of Athene’s sacred olive tree. 
This was an omen which put new heart into the work 
of rebuilding, and made the people feel certain that 
Athens was now rising from her ruins to be more 
powerful and lovelier than ever before. 

Much of this labor of building and making a more 
beautiful Athens out of the wreck of the former city 
was paid for by the state, and three of the Athenian 
leaders were given charge over it. These were Aris¬ 
tides, Themistocles and Xanthippus. The large 
sums of money raised to pay the cost of all the work 
and material needed were put in the hands of Aris* 
tides, whose honesty and truth were known to all the 
citizens. 

Themistocles was given the office of overseeing the 
building of the great walls, and one may be sure that 
the stones were set together well and securely, and 
that no time was wasted by the laborers employed 
on it. But Themistocles began to grow rich, and 
few people seemed to know the source from which 
his money came. He had been the friend of Pausa- 
nias the king, over in Sparta, and now word had 
come to Athens of the disgrace and death of Pausa- 
nias, who had been found guilty of treason. He had 
dreamed of becoming king over all Greece, and in 
order to secure that reward from Xerxes, he would 
have betrayed his own people to the Persians. 

Themistocles was soon suspected of having taken 
part in this plot, and of having accepted Persian 
gold. So great was the anger of the Athenians that 


120 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


lie was ostracised and driven out of Attica. He 
found refuge in the Persian court, and managed to 
win favor with Xerxes. He was finally appointed 
governor of Magnesia, an ^Eolian city, where he 
died, without ever again seeing his native land. 

This left more power than ever in the hands of 
Aristides, who used it well and pushed on the work 
of restoring the city. The Athenians would have 
granted him a generous salary in return for his serv¬ 
ices, but he would take nothing from the public 
money. He went on giving all his time and wisdom 
to the city that he loved, until he, too, died; and it 
was found that he had not left gold enough to pay 
for his own burial. For love of him, the city itself 
gave him a great public funeral, and not only Attica 
but all Hellas mourned that so wise and unselfish 
a patriot had been taken from them. 

During this time, when Athens was growing anew 
in size and beauty, a young soldier began to rise 
toward the leadership of public affairs. This was 
Cimon, the son of Miltiades. It was he who had been 
forced to ransom his father’s dead body from prison, 
in the days after the failure to capture Paros. But 
Cimon had served Athens well in her time of need, 
and had won such praise by his bravery at Salamis 
that he had been given command of the Athenian 
fleet. He had also carried on successful war with the 
Persians along the coast of Macedonia, and against 
the pirate stronghold of Scyros. 

From this latter island, Cimon had brought back 
to Athens the long buried bones of the hero Theseus, 
who was supposed to have died there. These were 
now carried with rejoicing into the city of which 
Theseus had been the hero-king, and were given 



The Dedication of a Greek Temple 

















122 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


burial with great public ceremony. Over his tomb 
was raised a temple called the Tlieseum, where honor 
was long paid to his memory. 

In these voyages against the Persians and the 
island pirates of the HDgean Sea, Cimon had taken 
so much booty that he was counted among the richest 
citizens of Athens. He was as generous and open- 
handed as he was wealthy, and gave large sums for 
improving the public buildings and market-places. 

Years before, a garden tract outside the city walls 
to the northwest had been given to the people of 
Athens as a pleasure ground. It took its name, ‘‘ the 
Academy,” from an ancient Greek hero, Academos, 
who was said to have lived there in the time of the 
Trojan war. Hipparchus the tyrant had built a wall 
around it, but it had long gone without care. It was 
now a piece of dry, bare ground, under the neglected 
boughs of its sacred olive trees. Cimon planted it 
with other trees and green turf, and made of it a 
garden so pleasant to walk in that the people of 
Athens loved to gather there and enjoy its beauty 
and cool shade. 

This Academy soon came to be far more than a 
mere pleasure ground for idle townsfolk. Certain 
wise men and scholars made it their habit to meet 
there under the olive trees, and to discuss with each 
other what they were studying, and what they had 
learned from both men and books, or by travel. The 
younger Athenians would come to listen and ask 
questions under the wide branches of the sacred 
grove; and soon the Academy came to be like a 
wonderful open air school, where eager students and 
grave scholars sought together for truth. Some new 
thing could always be learned there. From this 


REBUILDING ATHENS 


12; 


lovely garden, the name Academy has come down to 
us as meaning, above all, a place where learning is 
passed on to those who love it for its own sake. 

But Cimon himself had other work to do for 
Athens. Word came of a vast Persian fleet that was 
threatening the southern shores of Asia Minor, and 
he lost no time in making ready the Athenian tri¬ 
remes and setting sail for the coast of Caria. There 
he struck the Persian forces a double blow, defeating 
them in a great battle at once by land and sea. So 
he finally put an end to Persian dominion over the 
Greek colonies. Xerxes was only too thankful to 
make peace and to swear that his navy would never 
again be sent into the AEgean Sea. With the spoils 
taken from Persia in these battles, the Acropolis 
was once more fortified and made the stronghold of 
the city. 

Cimon was not alone in the favor of the Athenians. 
Pericles, a young noble who had many followers 
among the poorer classes, was gaining much influ¬ 
ence in Athens. Little by little, he came to be one 
of their greatest leaders. But while the other great 
men that have been spoken of were especially famous 
for their brave deeds in war, Pericles was above all 
the leader of the Athenians in peace. It was in his 
time that a treaty was made among the states of 
Greece, which put an end to their strife for thirty 
years. 

During this Thirty Years’ Peace so much was 
done to make Athens glorious in beauty, and to 
draw wise men and skilled artists into her service, 
that “The Age of Pericles” lias come to mean the 
golden time in all the history of Athens. It was 
now that the Parthenon, that most beautiful temple 


124 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


of Athene, was built, white and fair and noble, to 
be the glory of the Acropolis forever. Even today 
in its ruin, when ages have touched the snowy Pen- 
telic marble with warm golden brown tints, there is 
hardly anything more lovely in the world. We can 
see pictures of its graceful columns and perfect carv¬ 
ings; but even if we stood on the Acropolis today, 
we could scarcely imagine how much more marvelous 
it was in the time of Pericles, for the greatest works 
of Phidias, one of the master-sculptors of the world, 
have been taken from it, or broken. 

Phidias was the friend of Pericles, and was so 
great an artist that even the imperfect copies of 
his works, or the half shattered stones that came 
from his chisel, are among the noblest treasures 
handed down to us by a people who loved beauty 
with an enduring love. Among his greatest works 
was the statue of Athene, carved from ivory and 
gold, which stood in the Parthenon; and he also 
wrought the carvings of gods and heroes on its outer 
walls. Some of these remain there still to help men 
of today to realize something of what was done in 
the Age of Pericles. 


CHAPTER XII 


THE WISDOM OF GREECE 

T HE wars with Persia had made the many 
states of Greece feel as never before that they 
were all parts of one nation. But now some¬ 
thing was growing in Hellas which was to do more 
than any great war could to give a feeling of brother¬ 
hood to all the countries of the earth. The Greeks 
themselves did not guess how important a part of 
the world’s history their love of learning and wise 
words was to prove. 

Those Athenians in the days of Pericles lived what 
seemed to them plain, everyday lives. They were 
contented because peace had been made, and because 
they now had time to enjoy the homes they had built 
again for themselves in and near the lovely “City of 
the Olive Crown.” Some have said that another 
name for this newer Athens, “The City of the Violet 
Crown,” was given her by poets who sang of the 
sweet-scented purple flowers as the emblem of the 
city. Others have believed that the beautiful name 
was from the violet-tinted haze which often en¬ 
circled the city—then as now—toward twilight. 

No people have ever given their poets higher honor 
than the Greeks. The songs of Homer were valued 
as a national glory, worth far more than gold; and 
the man who did not know them was pitied as ig¬ 
norant and stupid. 

An Athenian citizen around whose home the new 
125 


126 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


city was growing found much to see, day by day, as 
he walked here and there through its streets. The 
new houses that he passed were much like his own. 
They were built with the rooms around a central 
court, which was uncovered to the sky. In this court 
might be a plot of flowers, carefully tended by the 
daughters of the home, or a fountain where his sons 
could sail boats of leaves and bits of wood. Nearly 
all the windows of these houses were toward this 
inner court rather than in the outer wall. 

In those days there were no newspapers like ours. 
The men of Athens enjoyed going out into the town 
to hear of any new thing that had happened, or to 
see how the building of the walls of their favorite 
temple was progressing. The Athenian whose morn¬ 
ing walk took him up on the Acropolis saw not only 
the rising walls and columns of the Parthenon, built 
of pure white marble quarried on Mount Pentelicus, 
but around it other temples, one of the Wingless 
Victory, and another, the Erectheum, beside which 
grew the sacred olive tree. Here lived the priest¬ 
esses and high born maidens who served the goddess. 

Everywhere were statues which had been set up 
in honor of the gods. High in air flashed the sunlit 
bronze helmet of the statue of Athene, the battle- 
trophy which spoke of Marathon to sailors far out 
at sea. Our Athenian would turn to look back at 
it with a thrill of pride, as he passed out between 
the pillars of the noble gateway and down the hill. 
This road led him past the Areopagus (the Hill of 
Ares, or Mars) and by the market-place; then out 
through the Dipylon (or double gate) to where the 
gray-green olive branches kept guard over the 
shaded paths of the Academy. 


THE WISDOM OF GREECE 


127 


This was the place for our Athenian to join a 
handful of his friends in their eager talk about a 
play of the poet -ZEschylus, soon to be given in the 
great open Theater of Dionysus, below the Acrop¬ 
olis. They all knew how ,/Eschylus had been only 
a little lad when Hipparchus the tyrant had been 
slain by the two young Greeks, Harmodius and 
Aristogiton, whose statues they passed every day 
in the busy market-place. The boy Hlschylus, grown 
to manhood, had fought gallantly at both Marathon 
and Salamis. No wonder that a singer who had 
taken part in such great and stirring times had 
been able to write the wonderful tragedy telling of 
the slaying of Agamemnon the King, even as he re¬ 
turned to his palace at Argos, after the burning of 
Troy. 

Some one in the little group might nudge his com¬ 
panions quickly to turn and see, strolling to and fro 
under the gnarled olive boughs with Pericles him¬ 
self, the poet Euripides, born the very day of the 
victory of Salamis. These two noble Greeks had 
been students together, but about many things they 
thought very differently. If they were arguing, as 
was likely, over the need of certain temple cere¬ 
monies, Pericles would be apt to speak with much 
earnest authority; while his companion would listen 
to his friend’s words with a shake of his head and a 
smile. For Euripides did not feel himself bound by 
the strict, old-time beliefs about what was due to 
the gods. He thought many of the stories told of 
them were fit only to amuse children, and he was 
not afraid to let his own ideas be seen in what he 
wrote. In spite of this, his tragedies were loved by 
Greeks far and near; and certain Athenian captives 


128 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


in Sicily would one day have their lives spared and 
he set free without ransom, because they were able 
to repeat parts of the dramas of Euripides to the 
men who had taken them prisoners. 

There was still another famous writer of tragic 
plays whose name all Athenians spoke with respect. 
Sophocles, who has been called the noblest thinker 
of them-all, had taken the first prize at the great 
Dionysia, or spring festival, with his tragedy, the 
“Antigone.” It is safe to say that the Athenians, 
proud in their hearts of their countrymen as they 
chatted in the green paths of the Academy, would 
not have been greatly surprised if some one had 
told them that more than two thousand years after 
they themselves were forgotten, the “Antigone” of 
Sophocles would still be read with reverence for its 
sorrowful beauty, and would be named one of the 
master-poems of the Age of Pericles, and of all time. 

But the Athenian who did most to make the 
Academy remembered as the garden where wise 
thoughts grew was the son of a carver of stone. He 
had a queer, rugged looking face, so ugly that people 
who did not know him would laugh at it. But his 
mind and soul had in them something so beautiful 
that his friends never thought of his odd looks. His 
name was Socrates. 

This man had been brought up to his father’s 
trade, but had known what it was to lay aside his 
chisel and mallet, so that he might take up sword 
and spear and shield, to fight the battles of his fair, 
“olive-crowned” city. And he served her well, 
through many a weary march and hard won fight, 
never complaining of cold or hunger. 

When fighting was at an end, and the Thirty 



© Underwood & Underwood 


The Great Open Theater of Dionysus 

Situated in Athens, below the Acropolis, this was the most noted of 
Greek theaters and a model of all the others. 










130 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


Years- Peace begun 445 B. C., Socrates made his 
home in Athens, where he started in to study, with 
deep eagerness that was like hunger, to find out the 
truths he was sure were at the root of all knowledge. 
When he was not wrapped up in study, he was giving 
freely what he had learned to all who wished to be 
taught. His greatest wish was to force people to 
do some real thinking for themselves, instead of 
going through life satisfied with the traditions of 
their forefathers, which they had learned as narrots 
learn. 

In order to set people thinking, Socrates would 
walk about the city, and perhaps sit down first beside 
some old fisherman who had brought his morning’s 
catch up from the Piraeus in a basket, and who was 
waiting to sell it to the house slaves who came to 
buy fish for their masters’ tables. Socrates would 
ask the old man some simple question about what he 
believed was right or wrong, and try to make the 
fisherman find out for himself why he believed that 
thing. Another citizen, stopping to see the fish in 
the basket, would be drawn into the talk. Still others 
would join in, and by his questions Socrates would 
bring them to admit how useless were some of their 
everyday customs, and how little reason there was 
for upholding them. With all this, he taught them 
the value of simple and honest living, as dearer to 
the gods than any rich offerings. 

Socrates went about the city, poor and shabby. 
There was little comfort in his home. Xantippe, his 
ill-tempered wife, cared nothing at all for his love 
of teaching, which brought in neither silver nor gold. 
Yet when he stood watching the lads running foot 
races at the Academy, young men and old gathered 


THE WISDOM OF GREECE 


131 


around him, eager to hear his words. He did not 
pretend to any wisdom of his own. But when he 
talked with his companions as one willing to learn 
of their greater knowledge, they found that his sim¬ 
plest questions were no easy ones to answer, as 
they called for perfect truth in reply. This often 
made learned men angry with him, for it showed 
their hearers how uncertain they really were about 
things which they pretended to know well. In fact, 
those who fell into a talk with Socrates were either 
made to feel cross at him, or else humble and eager 
to learn from him. 

One of the close friends of Socrates was a young 
kinsman of Pericles, named Alcibiades, who was 
much spoken about in Athens. This was partly be¬ 
cause he was a handsome youth and had a great deal 
of money, and partly because he had won the prize 
in the chariot race at Olympia three times. Alci¬ 
biades was clever, but spoiled by too much good 
fortune. He insisted on having his own way in all 
things; and sometimes, to show how little lie cared 
for what the common people thought about him, he 
acted foolishly. Once he cut off the tail of a valuable 
dog, for which he had paid a high price. Of course 
this made much gossip and wonder in Athens. Some 
one asked him why he did it, and he laughed. “I 
wished the Athenians to talk about it,” he said, “so 
that they might not say something worse of me.” 

Socrates saw much that was good in the boy, and 
tried to make him see that he was wasting his time 
and talents. In the company of this wise friend, 
who had once saved his life in battle, Alcibiades 
would confess how useless were the trifles on which 
he spent his time, and would promise to be more of 


132 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


a man. But it was easy to forget, when he was away 
from the older man, and when flatterers, drawn 
around him by his lavish ways, urged him on to some 
piece of thoughtless mischief that might end in up¬ 
setting half the city. 

After the death of Pericles, a general named 
Nicias, brave but rather slow-witted, was chosen 
leader in his place. Nicias was backward in taking 
action about anything important, and cared most of 
all to keep the city and state peaceful and pros¬ 
perous. Alcibiades, on the other hand, not only en¬ 
joyed stirring up a whole neighborhood by some 
prank, but wanted to rouse Athens and all Attica 
into quarrels with other states. He was anxious to 
win glory for himself as a great soldier, even if he 
had to do so by provoking a war; and this eagerness 
proved a curse to himself and to all Athens. 

Two other pupils and friends of Socrates, whose 
names will always live, were Plato and Xenophon. 
Plato was a quiet and loving hearer of all that Soc¬ 
rates taught. He never wearied of setting down his 
master’s sayings, as well as full accounts of the 
quaint talks, both questions and answers, which he 
heard him having with other people. If Plato had 
not taken this trouble, little would now be known of 
the actual words of Socrates, for the good philos¬ 
opher (which long word means ‘Hover of wisdom”) 
wrote down nothing at all. For many years after 
the death of Socrates, Plato went on teaching what 
Socrates had taught in the Academy. Men came 
from far over seas to join the number who gladly 
heard Plato tell of Socrates’ wisdom'. 

Xenophon was a young Athenian knight who 
dearly loved and reverenced the wise words of 


THE WISDOM OF GREECE 


133 


Socrates, and who tried to live as his master advised 
him. In after years he, too, wrote a book about 
Socrates, as well as a famous history, well known 
to all who study Greek. 

Even when Socrates was only a poor stone cutter, 
who often neglected earning his daily bread, his 
teachings must have had their influence on the citi¬ 
zens of Athens, and on what they decided in the 
great public assemblies where every freeman had 
his vote on state questions. The Greek way of gov¬ 
erning was not like ours, for the citizens never 
thought of electing men to take from them the 
trouble of voting on the affairs of the state. The 
man who did not go in person to the assembly would 
have no voice in deciding affairs. 

It had always been so in Hellas. Even far back 
in the time of the kings, little could be done by a 
ruler without first calling together his soldiers in the 
camp, or the free citizens in the market-place, and 
gaining their consent to what he wished. And while 
the Greek freeman might be too busy with his trade 
or his farm to take much part in the real work of 
governing, and might be carried away by the eager 
words of some noble who had his own purpose to 
serve, yet in all the turns of public life the real power 
was with the mass of everyday people, who were 
learning to use it in their assemblies. 

Pericles himself, who held leadership at Athens 
for so long, was yearly elected to his office of general 
by the people. 


CHAPTER XIII 
TROUBLOUS TIMES 

I T WAS while Pericles was still living and di¬ 
recting the affairs of Athens that the Thirty 
Years 7 Peace came to an end and thinking men 
began to feel that trouble was ahead for Hellas. 
Athens, while growing lovely to see, had been grow¬ 
ing rich as well. Her ships traded with cities in 
northern Italy, with the Phoenicians of Carthage, 
and with Sicily, where the colonies from Greece had 
grown large and powerful. The city of Syracuse, 
first settled by men from Corinth, was larger than 
any city of Greece except Athens. From Thrace, 
too, where Greek towns had grown up all along the 
coast, ships from Athens brought great cargoes of 
corn and lumber and fish, as well as gold and silver, 
mined back in the mountains of Macedonia. 

All these trading ships had to be protected from 
pirates and from hostile foreign powers by stout 
warships. Of these latter, Athens had plenty; so 
trade prospered, and the Piraeus was always crowded 
with merchant vessels. Toll was taken there for the 
state from every grain ship which put in for shelter 
or for repairs, to the shadow of the great Arsenal. 

The City of the Olive Crown had also been grow¬ 
ing strong; too strong to please some of the neighbor 
states of Greece, who could find no way of checking 
her without breaking the Peace. The Long Walls 
were now finished, protecting the four miles of road- 
134 


TROUBLOUS TIMES 


135 


way between the city itself and the harbor town of 
Piraeus. Sparta heard of these walls with deep 
jealousy. 

At first only small wars disturbed the quiet of the 
country. Some of the islanders of the iEgean, un¬ 
able to agree with neighbors, drew their mother 
cities into their disputes. Pericles had to put down 
a rebellion in Samos, where the people of the island 
tried to get ships and soldiers from Phoenicia to 
fight on their side. But two hundred Athenian war¬ 
ships frightened back the Phoenician allies, if they 
really had intended to come and help. Samos was 
blockaded until she gave in and asked for peace. 

Now came a more serious disturbance. Over on 
the western coast of Greece was the Island of Cor- 
cyra, now called Corfu. Like Syracuse, it had been 
colonized in early times by settlers from Corinth, 
but it had long ago thrown off the rule of its mother 
city. Writers of history say that the first real sea 
battle between any two Greek powers was fought 
between Corcyra, and Corinth, in 435 B. C. 

Corcyra was now having trouble with a colony of 
her own, which made an appeal to Corinth for help. 
The Corcyrans in 433 B. C. won another naval vic¬ 
tory over Corinth, who persuaded Sparta to join 
forces with her. Then Corcyra sent envoys to the 
Assembly at Athens, who urged many good reasons 
(to them) why their two cities should stand together. 
Sparta and Corinth, they said, were both jealous of 
Athens. Should they prevail over Corcyra, they 
would then have a strong and united force, ready to 
seize on the first pretext for striking a blow at 
Athens. Corcyra possessed one of the three largest 
Greek navies. If Corinth should capture it, that of 


136 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


Athens would be greatly over-matched. The envoys 
from Corinth who had been sent to prevent the pro¬ 
posed alliance, had no such strong arguments to 
offer. The two older cities had never trusted each 
other. 

It needed no great wisdom to foresee what was 
coming next. In a short time the ancient enemies 
were again arming for battle; and from merely tak¬ 
ing part with friendly cities at a distance, Sparta 
and Athens were soon fighting directly against each 
other. This began, in 431 B. C., what is known as 
the Peloponnesian War. It was to last for twenty- 
seven years. 

Athens was powerful at sea, but had no large land 
force. Spartan warriors were among the best in 
Greece, and were always ready for battle. Which 
would have the advantage? 

Sparta threatened Athens with her army, and the 
country folk from all over Attica took refuge in the 
well fortified city, leaving their farms and property 
at the mercy of the invaders. The Athenian fleet, 
in the meantime, took several towns along the 
enemy’s coasts, and won full possession of the 
Island of AEgina in the Saronic Gulf. Commanded 
by Pericles in person, it drove off a Spartan sea 
force, but came back to find the Spartan army still 
besieging Athens. 

A new enemy had now to be reckoned with. The 
people were so crowded together in Athens that a 
terrible sickness broke out, raging throughout the 
city, and costing a great many lives. Pericles went 
everywhere that it was most severe, giving all his 
time to those who were suffering. This he did even 
while grief-stricken for his own family, who had 


TROUBLOUS TIMES 


137 


nearly all perished. In the end he, too, took the 
plague and died in the year 429 B. C. 

It was in the hour before his death that he over¬ 
heard his weeping friends recounting the many great 
things he had done for Athens. He roused for a 
moment, and told them that he was proud only of 
one thing. Never had any Athenian been forced to 
wear mourning through any action of his. Then 
Pericles closed his eyes, and spoke no more. For 
more than thirty years he had governed Athens with 
justice, loving his country, and showing mercy and 
kindness to all who were poor and weak. 

The Spartans retreated from Attica, fearing lest 
they, too, might be attacked by the plague; and for 
a while the war was not pushed very hard. "We have 
said that Nicias, who was given leadership after the 
death of Pericles, was never anxious to act rashly. 
In the end, it was Alcibiades who persuaded the 
Athenians to send an expedition against Syracuse, 
in Sicily. That large city, he said, was the ally of 
Sparta, and would prove a rich prize. 

Nicias opposed the plan of invading Sicily, but 
the Assembly was won over by Alcibiades, and the 
fleet was made ready to sail. It was about to leave 
the Piraeus when a great excitement arose in Athens. 
The citizens awakened in the morning to find that 
all the little statues of Hermes, the god of travelers, 
which stood as boundary marks in the city, had 
had pieces broken from their heads. Not only was 
the deed itself thought a bad omen for the ships 
about to sail, but many Athenians believed the affair 
to have been a prank of Alcibiades, which would 
bring down the anger of the gods if not punished. 
Alcibiades denied the charge, and asked to be given 


138 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


a trial at once, but his hearing was put off, and he 
was allowed to sail for Sicily. 

The fleet had joined forces with certain friendly 
Sicilian cities, which had promised money aid to 
the expedition, and had taken one ship of Syracuse, 
when a swift galley brought an order for Alcibiades 
to return to Athens and stand his trial for impiety. 
In hot anger, he refused to go. He escaped to 
Sparta, instead. There he made friends with the 
people, and even made them believe that he much 
preferred living in the rugged Spartan fashion! 
Athens held the trial without him, found him guilty, 
condemned him to death and took away all his 
property. 

In the meantime, the Athenian fleet entered the 
harbor of Syracuse; but the people of the city 
blocked up the narrow sea entrance, gave battle, and 
defeated Nicias and his forces (413 B. C.). The old 
general was killed, and thousands of prisoners were 
taken. Not one Athenian ship of that gallant com¬ 
pany ever reached home again. Nearly all the 
prisoners taken were thrown into the quarries, where 
they were allowed to starve to death. It was at this 
time that some few of the Athenians were freed, be¬ 
cause they knew and could recite the tragedies of 
Euripides, whom the Syracusans honored highly. 

Alcibiades, to be revenged on Athens, betrayed all 
that he knew of her war plans to the Spartans. But 
in a short time he was suspected of being a traitor 
to his new friends, as well as to old ones, and he fled 
to Persia. Persia and Sparta were friendly just 
then, so in order to make himself more secure, Al¬ 
cibiades tried to stir up discord between those two 
countries. He would even have gone back to the 


TROUBLOUS TIMES 


139 


Athenian side, but it was now of no use. Spartan 
troops under Lysander, their general, had won vic¬ 
tory after victory over the Athenians, and had ended 
by inarching into the city without any one daring 
to oppose them. 

Being now in power over her rival, Sparta set 
aside the laws of Solon and appointed thirty of her 
own citizens to rule Attica. The Long Walls were 
pulled down, and the defenses of Athens were in 
the hands of her bitter enemy. For fear Alcibiades 
should come from Persia to fight for his old home, 
the Spartans bribed the Persian governor and had 
him put to death by hired assassins. 

In the eight months during which the Thirty Ty¬ 
rants ruled over Athens, they condemned to death 
nearly fifteen hundred of her citizens, besides forc¬ 
ing many of her people into exile. Thebes and 
Argos gave them shelter and soon the tide began to 
turfi. The other Greek states were not any too well 
pleased at seeing the power of Sparta becoming so 
great. 

Thrasybulus, one of the banished Athenians, had 
the courage to act. He sent for all the exiles to 
whom he could get word, and together they set out 
for Athens. They managed to enter the city and 
put an end to the rule of the Thirty Tyrants (403 
B. C.). Athens, rejoicing, was free again. 

So open was the feeling that was growing through¬ 
out Hellas against the pride of Sparta, that she made 
no move to invade and punish Attica. So there was 
peace again for a while. The Long Walls were re¬ 
built, and Athens soon felt able to hold her own. 

About this time, civil war broke out in the Persian 
Empire. The king now on its throne was named 


140 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


Artaxerxes. His younger brother, Cyrus, who was 
satrap in Asia Minor, had long wanted to overthrow 
him and make himself king instead. Having seen 
during the Peloponnesian War how the Greeks could 
fight, Cyrus wanted their help. He was raising an 
army to march against his brother, so he sent into 
Hellas, offering high pay to any Greek soldiers who 
would come over into Persia and fight on his side. 
He had many well wishers in Hellas, and among 
those who accepted his offer was Xenophon, the 
friend and pupil of Socrates. 

With a hundred thousand of his own countrymen 
and more than ten thousand Greeks, Cyrus started 
(401 B. C.) to march from Sardis inland toward 
Persia. The Greeks had not expected to be taken 
so far from the coast, and they made a strong pro¬ 
test ; but by that time they had gone too far to turn 
back safely, so they went on. After many weeks the 
army of Cyrus reached Cunaxa, near Babylon. 
There it struck the far greater army of Artaxerxes, 
and fought a battle. The Greek warriors drove back 
all who fought against them; but Cyrus was killed, 
and the Persians who had followed him had now no 
one to battle for. They gave way and fled in dismay, 
leaving their Greek allies alone in the heart of a 
strange land. 

But the Greeks had fought so valiantly that Ar¬ 
taxerxes thought it too much of a risk to attempt 
to destroy them by a hand-to-hand struggle. In¬ 
stead he chose treachery as a better means of rid¬ 
ding himself of them. Tissaphernes, the Persian 
general, made a truce for the time. He sent word to 
the Greeks that Cyrus was dead and that if they 
would cease fighting, they should be allowed to go 


TROUBLOUS TIMES 


141 


safely back to their own country. Trusting in his 
word the Greek leaders went to his tent to arrange 
matters. There he had them surrounded by soldiers 
and killed. 

He may have thought that the ten thousand Greek 
soldiers would now surrender, but he was mistaken. 
They held a swift council, chose new leaders for 
themselves, and set off on the long march northward. 
One of these new commanders was Xenophon, who 
proved so brave and clear headed that he succeeded 
in taking them safely up through Media and Ar¬ 
menia, across the mountains and along the wild 
coast country until they reached certain Greek cities, 
just across from where Constantinople now stands 
’(400 B. C.). 

Xenophon had brought these ten thousand men 
out of the center of the Persian Empire, through 
hostile tribes and dangerous passes, and had lost 
hardly a man on the road! We can read in his own 
words of that world-famous retreat, which took five 
months of steady marching, and of the great shouts 
of joy when at last they caught sight of the sea, 
which they scarcely had hoped ever to see again. All 
Greece had reason to honor the men who made that 
march, as well as the captain whose cool steadiness 
held them together in an enemy ’s country, and who 
afterward wrote out the whole story of it. His book 
is called the “Anabasis,” or “Up-Going,” and it 
has kept the memory of that wonderful exploit alive 
in the heart of Hellas for all time. 

But the man whose kindly praise would have 
meant most of all to Xenophon, when he finally re¬ 
turned to Athens, no longer lived. Socrates, lover 
of truth, had made too many enemies by his plain 


142 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


speaking. The Thirty Tyrants had done him no 
harm, though he had been fearless in his stand 
against their cruelty. Now that Athens had shaken 
off Spartan rule, his own fellow-townsmen turned on 
the man who spoke the open truth to them and of 
them. They accused him of not believing in the gods, 
and of teaching evil to the young men of the city. 

Socrates had no fear of death, and he was cer¬ 
tain of his own innocence. He might have escaped, 
but he came forward and stood trial. He told them 
frankly that he did believe in a divine power even 
higher than all the gods on Olympus; but he had 
always shown reverence to those gods as part of the 
great All-Power, and he denied having taught any 
other beliefs to the young Athenians. 

In spite of this, which was well known to be the 
truth, Socrates was condemned and sentenced to 
drink hemlock, a deadly poison. But the sacred ship 
which carried the yearly offerings of Athens to the 
shrine of Apollo at Delos had sailed. Until its re¬ 
turn no man sentenced to death could be executed. 
So for thirty days Socrates was kept in prison, and 
there his pupils and close friends gathered around 
him in bitter sorrow. They would have bribed his 
jailers to let him escape, even now, knowing that 
his absence from Athens for the rest of his life 
would have satisfied his accusers. But he would not 
consent to break the law of Athens, to which he had 
always taught obedience. 

“Master,’’ said his pupil Crito, 4 ‘will you then 
stay here and die, being innocent f ” 

“That would be far better/’ Socrates replied, 
“than that I should die for having done wrong.” 
And he made ready to obey the orders of the court. 


TROUBLOUS TIMES 


143 


Plato, his pupil, was with him to the end, and he 
has written down the last words of loving wisdom 
spoken by Socrates. When the appointed hour came, 
he drank the poison and quietly passed from this 
life (399 B. C.), leaving teachings behind him which 
can never die. 

With his dear master gone, Xenophon had no de¬ 
sire to remain in Athens. He went over and fought 
against the Persians in Asia for a while. At last 
he made a quiet home for himself in the lovely coun¬ 
try near Olympia, where he spent the rest of his 
life. It was here that he wrote the 41 Anabasis /’ his 
account of the Retreat of the Ten Thousand, and a 
number of other books, among them a strong defense 
of the memory of Socrates. 


CHAPTER XIV 


STRIFE AMONG THE STATES 

HOSE ten thousand sturdy Greek fighting men 
who had marched out of Persia with Xeno¬ 



phon did not return to Greece with him when 
that famous retreat was over. They were ready for 
more fighting and more gold, and when they heard 
that Sparta was sending an expedition into Asia 
Minor, to help the Ionian settlements to free them¬ 
selves from Artaxerxes, they said that here was 
work for them. 

Cyrus, in order to gain the good will of the Greeks, 
had persuaded the Ionian cities to throw off the 
Persian yoke, promising to protect them when he 
should become king. But Cyrus had failed; and 
one of the first acts of the victorious Artaxerxes was 
to plan severe punishment for the Greeks in Asia 
Minor. They were not strong enough to make their 
stand alone against the Persians, and they sent to 
Sparta, asking her to help them. 

Though Sparta was leaving the Athenians to them¬ 
selves for the time being, she was still looked on 
as the most powerful state in Greece, and the one 
that should be war leader, in case an enemy should 
invade Hellas. Her new king, Agesilaus, was will¬ 
ing to win glory by leading a force against the sa¬ 
traps of King Artaxerxes in Asia Minor. Indeed, 
he was so certain of success against them that he 


STRIFE AMONG THE STATES 


145 


began to think of himself as a second Agamemnon, 
going out to capture another Ilium. 

The notion took so firm a hold of him that he led 
part of his forces to the coast by way of Aulis, in 
Bceotia, in order to make a sacrifice to the goddess 
Artemis in her temple there, just as Agamemnon 
had done before sailing for Troy. He had not taken 
the trouble to find out first whether the Boeotians 
would approve of this, but went right ahead with it 
in his own way. 

As it happened, however, Boeotian customs en¬ 
tirely forbade a sacrifice being made by a strange 
priest in such fashion; and the Boeotians, looking on 
the act as an insult, sent a band of armed men from 
Thebes to stop the ceremony. Agesilaus had to 
leave the temple with his sacrifice half finished. He 
sailed away for Asia Minor with a deep grudge in 
his heart against Boeotia and the Thebans. 

Once they were over in Asia, with the Ten Thou¬ 
sand to help them, the Spartan forces won several 
battles, and Artaxerxes made no headway against 
them. He tried to think of some plan for compelling 
the Spartans to return to Greece. At last he sent 
an envoy to Athens, promising a large bribe to the 
city and her allies if they would go to war against 
the Spartans, and thus force Agesilaus to hurry 
home from Asia Minor. 

Few of the other Greek states were feeling 
friendly toward Sparta at this time. She had been 
too insolent in her treatment of both allies and 
enemies, and because she was the strongest, had 
even refused the states who had sided with her their 
share of the battle spoil. Thebes and Argos and 
Corinth had all been given reason to resent- the ac- 


146 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


tions of Sparta, and it would not need much to turn 
them wholly against her. So when the Athenians 
decided to accept the offer of King Artaxerxes, they 
were fairly certain that they would not have to fight 
Sparta unaided. 

Thebes and Athens together declared war on 
Sparta, and her chief men at once called Agesilaus 
home to command the Lacedemonian army. Though 
the Persians were almost at his mercy, he did not 
dare to disobey. He hastened back to Sparta and 
at once led an army up into Boeotia. The forces of 
Thebes and Athens met him at a place called Coro- 
nea, north of Mount Helicon, and were badly de¬ 
feated there. 

Yet the Thebans, who had always been called slow 
and dull, here fought so splendidly that the victory 
was not one of which the Spartans could boast. 
Boeotia showed her warlike rival that she, too, could 
send strong warriors into the field; and Agesilaus 
had to retire from the country whose troops he had 
beaten. This was partly because word was brought 
him that the Athenian fleet, under Conon, had won 
a stirring victory over the Spartan ships at Cnidus, 
an island off Caria, where the Persian ships in the 
AEgean had joined forces with the Athenians against 
Sparta. 

At Athens the money sent by Artaxerxes to bring 
on the war was used to pay for making the city 
walls stronger than before, and to repair the Long 
Walls, which the Spartans had broken down in order 
to humble the City of the Olive Crown. Strange to 
say, the Persian admiral, Pharnabazus, allowed 
Conon to take his own Persian fleet and sailors up 
to Athens, in order to help with this work. But 


STRIFE AMONG THE STATES 


147 


Agesilaus had so injured Persia that Pharnabazus 
was glad to make things even by aiding his enemies 
in this manner. So for a time Sparta found it wise 
to make a treaty with Persia and the hostile Greek 
states, and to keep the peace. 

But no treaty seemed strong enough to keep 
Sparta from trampling down the rights of any 
weaker state. By a trick, a large number of Spartan 
soldiers managed to enter Thebes while the festival 
of Demeter, goddess of grain fields and the harvest, 
was taking all the attention of the people. They 
surprised the citadel, or fortress within the city, 
and not only drove out its garrison and held it for 
Sparta, but from there took it on themselves to rule 
the city. They also lost no time in banishing from 
Thebes a number of the chief citizens, who might 
otherwise have raised an army to drive them away. 

In Thebes, just before this, had been living two 
men who were widely known for their bravery, and 
for their close and loving friendship. One of them, 
named Epaminondas, was poor, although he came 
of a noble family. He was more of a student than 
a warrior, yet in battle his valor had saved the life 
of his dear comrade Pelopidas, who had fallen, badly 
wounded, and who would have been taken prisoner 
or killed but for Epaminondas. 

Pelopidas had great wealth, and was fond of hunt¬ 
ing and other vigorous exercises. He would gladly 
have shared all he had with Epaminondas; but when 
he saw that his friend cared nothing for luxury and 
preferred his quiet and simple ways of living, Pelop¬ 
idas made it his own pleasure to live in like manner. 
He used his money largely in helping the poor, so 
that he was well loved in Thebes. 


148 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


Pelopidas was among those forced into exile by 
the Spartans; and he and some other friends took 
refuge at Athens. Epaminondas was not looked on 
as being important enough to be a menace to the 
garrison in the citadel, so they let him go on living 
quietly in Thebes. 

Sparta, wishing to have it seem that she had never 
intended to break the peace treaty, pretended to be 
much displeased at the trick played by her soldiers. 
She fined their commander a large sum. But the 
Spartan garrison was given no order to withdraw 
from Thebes. 

After some time had passed, Pelopidas, who was 
in Athens, resolved to retake Thebes by some device, 
if it could be managed. He had been kept advised 
of all that was going on in Thebes. When the right 
hour seemed to have come, he and six of his fellow 
exiles, dressed as common huntsmen, slipped away 
from Athens and out into the country unnoticed. 

The little band of Theban patriots made their way 
straight across the border into Boeotia, and reached 
Thebes just as the peasants were going home to the 
city after working all day in the fields. Mixing 
with these men, Pelopidas and his company passed 
the gates in safety and reached the house of a friend. 
A loyal Theban who knew what was planned made 
a feast for the Spartan leaders, and when they were 
laughing and drinking much wine, he opened a door 
and brought in a band dressed as veiled dancing- 
women, with wreaths of flowers shading their faces. 
The Spartans were much pleased, but when the 
.veils were put aside, they saw Pelopidas and his 
companions, who slew them with daggers. 

In the confusion, the Theban citizens attacked the 


STRIFE AMONG THE STATES 


149 


Spartan soldiers everywhere in the city. Having 
no leaders to rally them, the Spartans fled. In the 
darkness, they thought a great hostile force had 
entered the city. Epaminondas and other loyal citi¬ 
zens joined the returned exiles, and Thebes was 
again free from Sparta, without dragging Athens 
into breaking any treaty. And Sparta might be 
sure that Thebes would not be thrown back into 
slavery by her own will. 

Well knowing that few neighbor states would up¬ 
hold her if she tried to punish the Boeotian city, 
Sparta waited for her chance. She waited ten years 
and then sent an army to invade Boeotia. It was 
met at Leuctra by a Theban force under Epaminon¬ 
das, and was entirely defeated by that man whom 
the Spartans had not thought important enough to 
banish. 

This victory made Thebes the leading power in 
Hellas at the time. Her friendship was now desired 
by many weaker states. Thessaly was ruled by a 
cruel tyrant, and its people begged Thebes to help 
them free themselves. 

Two expeditions were sent into Thessaly to carry 
the aid asked for. They ended in the overthrow 
of the tyrant, but also in the heroic death of Pel- 
opidas. Even as this last battle was being fought, 
Epaminondas was hastening southward with part of 
the Theban army to meet another Spartan force, 
which was marching to conquer Boeotia in spite of a 
truce that had been made. It was led by Agesilaus, 
and the army of Epaminondas struck it at Mantinea, 
a town in the Peloponnesus itself, not far north of 
Spartan territory. 

Mantinea saw the victory of the Boeotian forces, 


150 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


but their loss was greater than their gain. Epami- 
nondas, their noble and fearless general, who had 
always known what was best to be done when ene¬ 
mies threatened Bceotia, and who could hold together 
an army in the face of defeat, was struck in the 
breast by a Spartan spear. Knowing that he would 
die when it was pulled out, he allowed no one to 
touch it until he knew that the victory was won. 
His friends gathered around him, sorrowing aloud 
because he had no children to keep alive the memory 
of his name. He told them that Leuctra and Man- 
tinea were daughters who would keep his fame alive 
forever. Then, hearing that the enemy was over-, 
thrown, he drew out the spear-liead and died. No 
man, it has been said, ever understood so much and 
spoke so little. In all his life he thought and acted 
only to uphold the right, and never for his own 
selfish advantage. 

If the Greek states could only have held together 
without jealousy of each other, Hellas might have 
remained a great power for long ages. But only 
fierce war with an invader could put a stop to the 
bitter feelings of one state toward another. As it 
was, each of these internal wars left Hellas more 
and more at the mercy of any outland power which 
might be ready to strike. 

The colonies were slipping away. In Asia Minor 
the cities along the coast, while not always obedient 
to the Persian king, had really become part of his 
empire. Up in the north, the mountain states that 
bordered on Greece, and that had once turned toward 
her for support, were now feeling the new power 
that was steadily growing in Macedonia, a country 
looked on by cultured Greeks as almost barbarous, 


STRIPE AMONG THE STATES 


151 


but where much had been learned during the Per¬ 
sian wars. 

Over in Sicily, the city of Syracuse had been able 
to defeat the Athenian invaders. For a time, this 
colony from Corinth was far the strongest of all 
Greek cities. She had held her own against out¬ 
siders, both in peace and war, and her trading ship^ 
carried out rich cargoes from her port and brought 
back gold to add to the power of Dionysius, her 
tyrant. 

Like all Greek cities and colonies, Syracuse had 
begun by being self governed. The people had held 
their assembly and made their own laws. But Dio¬ 
nysius (405-367 B. C.), who was not even a man of 
noble birth, had contrived to force himself into the 
highest place, and had kept himself there by ruling 
the people of Syracuse and the country around with 
ever watchful cruelty. 

At first he had been only a clerk in some small 
public office; but he had fought well in battle when 
an army came into Sicily from Carthage, in northern 
Africa, expecting to plunder the rich towns and vil¬ 
lages. He then made a speech in the assembly, 
accusing certain weak generals of treason. This 
made people notice him, and soon he was put in a 
high office, which gave him the chance to win more 
and more power. 

A new invasion set this ambitious man at the head 
of the state, and he has been accused of making him¬ 
self still stronger by taking bribes from the Cartha¬ 
ginians, who wanted him to leave them free to plun¬ 
der the western side of the island. As the Syra¬ 
cusans knew only that their own city was spared, 
they gave Dionysius credit for turning back the in- 


152 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


vaders; and in the end he was able to make himself 
tyrant, in the most cruel meaning of the word. 

The people soon came to hate and fear him; but 
there was no one who could deliver them. Yet at 
times this tyrant could be noble. A certain story 
will be told of him as long as the records of brave 
deeds endure. 

In the city of Syracuse, while Dionysius was 
reigning, lived two young men whose close friend¬ 
ship was indeed part of their very lives. Their 
names were Damon and Pythias. Certain men of 
the city, who dreamed of ridding themselves of the 
detested tyrant, drew Pythias into their plot for 
killing Dionysius. When it was betrayed, Pythias 
was thrown into prison under sentence of death. 

His friend, Damon, who had not been concerned 
in the plot, made every effort to win pardon for 
him, but without success. Yet he went to the tyrant 
and made one last plea. The aged mother of Pythias 
lived far away in the hills with her young daughter. 
They had no other protector, and would be left help¬ 
less and alone in the world. If Dionysius would 
allow Pythias to journey to his mother’s house and 
provide for her and his sister, he, Damon, would take 
his place in prison until his comrade’s return. 

The tyrant, wondering at such devotion, consented. 
He warned D^mon, however, that unless his friend 
was back in Syracuse at the appointed day, his own 
life would be forfeited. Pythias at first refused to 
hear of the risk being taken, but at last he consented. 
He hastened homeward, where he saw his sister mar¬ 
ried to a good man, who would care for the mother. 
Then he started back toward Sj^racuse. 

Pythias had none too much time in which to make 



Damon and Pythias 



























154 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


the journey, if he meant to save his dear friend from 
dying in his place. He was waylaid by robbers, who 
bound him, and only by hard effort was he able to 
free himself. Then, the stream that he would have 
to cross had been swollen by a storm in the moun¬ 
tains, and in trying to ford it he was swept away 
and nearly drowned. Yet he dragged himself to 
shore and hurried on toward the city where death 
was awaiting him, eager only to be in time for it. 

Dionysius, not believing that Pythias would ever 
come back, made merry over Damon, who had so 
played the fool, and who would have to die for a 
man who cared nothing for him. Damon did not 
lose faith in his friend for even a minute. He would 
have been glad to lay down his life for Pythias, and 
did not fear to say as much to the tyrant. 

The day of the execution came, and Damon was 
taken to the place of torture, there to be nailed to 
a cross. But in the last moment, when his body was 
outstretched on the crossed beams, a weary figure 
staggered into the open space, covered with dust and 
stained with blood. Pythias had reached Syracuse 
in time! The tyrant was so shamed by the pure love 
of the two men that he freed them both, and begged 
that he, too, might be called friend by them. 

It was the son of this tyrant, a man of the same 
name, who invited Plato, the noble friend of Soc¬ 
rates, to visit Sicily. For a time his wisdom was 
hearkened to by the young ruler. But when it was 
found that the youthful Dionysius was being swayed 
by the counsel of the good Athenian, his court grew 
jealous. By their plots the gentle philosopher would 
have been sold into slavery, had he not been rescued 


STRIFE AMONG THE STATES 


155 


and sent safely back to Athens by some of his loving 
pupils. 

The older Dionysius had been a strong tyrant. 
While he had been suspected of taking gold from 
the Carthaginians, yet he had made the city of 
Syracuse far more of a power than it had ever been 
before. His son was a weakling, who played at be¬ 
ing a tyrant until he turned his chief general against 
him. In the end his people rose against him and 
appealed to Corinth. Help was sent and Dionysius 
the Younger was banished from Sicily forever. A 
legend says that he became a teacher of singing and 
reading, living humbly in Corinth. 

Carthage, which had sent several expeditions into 
Sicily, was an old colony of the Phoenicians in north¬ 
ern Africa. It had grown steadily into a kingdom. 
It was there that the Trojan hero AEneas was said 
to have rested, with his companions, after his flight 
from the burning city of Ilium. It was from there, 
too, that he sailed into Italy, where his children’s 
children were to found the city of Rome. 

The Carthaginians were true Phoenicians, fearless 
sailors and cunning fighters; and with all their 
hearts they coveted the fair island of Sicily, which 
lay but a short voyage across the Midland Sea from 
their own great merchant city. 


CHAPTER XV 


SPREAD OF GREEK CULTURE 

H AVE these little wars, fierce battles and 
jealousies among a handful of tiny states 
dulled the memory of Greece as guardian of 
the Fire of Knowledge ? They should not, for even 
as the savage lad shielded the live brand which 
would be needed to light the next campfire without 
stopping to think out a reason for what he was doing, 
so the Greeks carried with them their wisdom and 
the customs which grew out of it. Without knowing 
it, they taught all the nations with whom they came 
in contact, whether in the quiet times of peace or in 
strenuous times of war. 

From the beginning, when the Pelasgians learned 
of the Phoenician traders how to use fire, to lay stone 
on stone for defense, and to forge metal into knives 
and axes and spearheads, every new art spread 
among them. Soon they were making stronger walls 
and sharper weapons. Soon they were becoming- 
wiser through inventing for themselves new ways 
of using these things. And they improved what they 
already knew by every hint gathered from outside 
visitors. 

Wherever they picked up new ideas, they left be¬ 
hind some of their own. The Greek trading ships 
that sailed along the coasts of Asia Minor, the war 
galleys that chased the pirate back to his stronghold 
in some island of the iEgean, the merchants who 
156 


SPREAD OF GREEK CULTURE 


157 


bartered their goods on the shores of Sicily or Italy, 
all were sure to show the stranger folk something 
worth remembering, if it was only the songs they 
sang about olden heroic ages, or their fashion of 
worshiping the gods. 

To put it in another way: the Greek wisdom and 
the Greek ways of doing things seemed to spread 
outward from their own little peninsula like the 
ripples from a stone dropped into the water. The 
stone does not have to be very large to make those 
wavelets. Some of the ripples from Hellas reach 
down to the present day. 

It is well to have some notion how far those first 
ripples were spreading while Greece and its people 
were fighting wars and were trying to take power 
from each other. 

The Greeks owed their sea-faring ways in large 
part to the shape of that rugged little peninsula of 
theirs. The sea was everywhere. Even the fresh, 
clear air of the mountains bore the life and vigor 
of the sea breezes which swept across them. The 
farmer often found it far shorter and easier to take 
his oil and wine, figs and lemons.and oranges to the 
market places of the nearest towns in a boat, than 
to toil over the rough hill passes with them, in a 
queer, slow-moving ox or donkey cart. 

Even the Greek warrior had to be a sailor. When 
he grew tired of staying in one place, or wanted 
something that could not be had there, he became a 
trader; and if he found the shore of some new land 
a good place for buying and selling, or for building 
a new city that should protect the fields which he 
had planted on some rich strip of coast land, he 
became a colonist. He was serving his own state 


158 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


by extending- her boundaries into new countries. 
So he built strong- walls to protect his settlement, 
and from there was quite as likely as not to sail out 
still farther into unknown seas and plant more 
colonies which should own his first settlement as 
mother-soil. 

How far did he go? 

Take the ripple sent by one little tribe. When the 
^Eolians and Ionians settled on the coast of Asia 
Minor, one of the towns which grew up on the shore 
was called Phocaea. Its people must have been fear¬ 
less mariners, for those long-ago days. They sent 
out colonies to the far parts of the Midland Sea, 
settling not only on the Island of Corsica, west of 
Italy, but on the distant shores of France and Spain. 
They founded the colony-city of Massalia, some six 
hundred years before the time of Christ. They 
fought with the Carthaginians, and sometimes beat 
them. 

Massalia, founded about 600 B. C if the Marseilles 
of today, became a port where trading galleys from 
Greece and Asia Minor brought their wares and 
bartered them with the barbarous tribes of the val¬ 
leys farther inland. These natives brought what 
they had to sell down the rivers, or through their 
great, wild forests, to some appointed place under 
the walls of the Greek town. There they would 
mingle with the strangers, and perhaps try to im¬ 
itate their unfamiliar words or their manner of 
dressing, or even the shapes of the pottery dishes 
and cups from which they ate and drank. 

Over in Egypt, on the banks of the Nile and not 
far from the present city of Cairo, was the ancient 
Greek trading city of Naucratis. It was founded 


SPREAD OP GREEK CULTURE 


159 


even earlier than Massalia, by colonists from the 
great Ionian town of Miletus, in Caria. Naucratis, 
within its well built walls, was divided into different 
quarters, each belonging to a separate Greek or 
Asian-Greek trading colony. It was famous for its 
potteries, the wares from which were carried to far 
countries. It was famous, too, for its flowers. The 
weaving of lovely garlands was a well known trade 
in Naucratis. 

When a city in a foreign land came to be spoken 
of as a center of Greek civilization, it was sure to 
be drawing in, for the use of its people, what was 
to be learned from the surrounding country. In this 
manner Naucratis drew on the wisdom of that old, 
old land of Egypt. Every Greek merchant who 
went there to trade sailed homeward with some 
strange new craft he had seen practiced in that part 
of Africa. Perhaps he took with him a slave who 
had been trained there in some art or craft. 

There was another wealthy Greek city in Africa. 
Over on the coast, west of Egypt, toward Carthage, 
was Cyrene, whose settlers came from the islands 
of the AEgean. It was noted for its love of learning. 
Its people also were famous for the fine horses they 
raised, which they rode and drove in chariots with 
wonderful skill. These cities in Africa endured 
through hundreds of years, but only ruins of them 
are left now. 

In the earliest ages the sailor-traders from coun¬ 
tries around the AEgean Sea had traded with the 
natives of the Island of Cyprus for copper—a metal 
which they needed for many purposes. When the 
Ionians of the Peloponnesus were driven out by the 
Dorians, they did not all settle in Asia Minor. Some 


160 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


of them turned aside and built their new homes on 
the shores of Cyprus, which was farther down, 
toward Phoenicia itself, and where many Phoenicians 
were living. Here the two races mingled, and here 
the Greek settlers first learned how to use marks 
on wood or stone or skins in order to preserve their 
spoken words for others to understand. They were 
the first of the children of Hellas to be taught this 
new art, many years before the Greek alphabet came 
into use. But the Cypriot signs were a poor and 
clumsy way of setting down words, and a better 
one had to be learned in the years to come. 

Much has been said about the colonies on the 
eastern coast of Asia Minor; but some of the Greeks 
were not content to stop so near home. Ships built 
and manned by them sailed the Hellespont many 
years before its waters were lashed for disobeying 
Xerxes; and beyond the Bosphorus they sped out 
into a large open sea which they named the Pontus 
Euxinus, or Great Hospitable Sea. This name 
hardly suited the Euxine (the Black Sea of today) 
as it was and is a stormy body of water. Some old 
writers believed that the Greeks called it by that 
kindly name in order that the unknown gods of the 
strange countries around it might be pleased with 
them and let them sail in safety on its dark waters. 

Colonies were planted here by men from Megara. 
One of these, settled fully seven hundred years be¬ 
fore the time of Christ, they called Byzantium. A 
thousand years later the Megaran merchant city was 
given the name of Constantinople, which it still re¬ 
tains. Its position at the “gate” of the Black Sea 
allowed it to control all trade passing through the 
straits leading into the Mediterranean, especially 


SPREAD OF GREEK CULTURE 


161 


that in grain and fish. Beyond it, along the Enxine 
shores, many other Greek colonies arose even at the 
far eastern end where Colchis of old was thought 
to have been—the country to which Jason went for 
the Golden Fleece. 

The colonies in Sicily were far famed and pros¬ 
perous ; but even before Messenia and Syracuse were 
founded on that lovely island where Mount iEtna 
guards the rich fields and vineyards and orchards, 
Greek sailors from Euboea had landed on the Italian 
coast and had founded a settlement there, called 
Cumae. Records set the founding of this first Greek 
city in Italy at a date a thousand years before 
Christ. It had grown and flourished for many 
years when some of its people, in turn, founded 
“Nauplia,” the “new city,” about ten miles away, 
on a lovely curving shore, watched over by another 
great volcano, called Vesuvius. Naples is what we 
call that colony from ancient Cumae, when we speak 
of the cities of the world most famous for beauty. 

More and more of the black-hulled ships came 
winging across the Ionian Sea from Hellas. Soon 
there were so many thriving Greek towns all across 
the southern part of old Italia, and around its shores, 
that the lower part of the peninsula, in the time from 
six to seven hundred years before Christ, was given 
the name of Magna Graecia, or Greater Hellas. 

It was odd that from here, rather than back in 
their own homeland, the Greeks should first have 
received a national name. The wild people around 
the settlements heard a certain small clan of the new¬ 
comers called Hellenes and gave the name to all the 
Greeks who settled in their neighborhood. The new¬ 
comers took up the name themselves, and before 


162 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


long the use of it had so spread that it was ever after 
given to people of the Greek race. In order to make 
this usage seem to have a historical reason, the 
old story-tellers invented an ancestor for their whole 
race, whom they called Hellen, and for whom they 
claimed honor as the son of Zeus. After a while this 
tradition came to be firmly believed by many of the 
people of Hellas. 

Some of the most beautiful and noble ruins still 
remaining from the days when the Greek builders 
knew—as no people since have ever done—how to 
shape temples of fair white marble, are those at 
Girgenti and Selinus in Sicily, and at Paestum, on 
the borders of Magna Graecia in Italy, south of 
Naples on - the coast. Looking at them, or at their 
pictures, it is easy to believe that the Greeks almost 
worshiped beauty of line and form, and wherever 
they went left tokens of that love, as a noble inherit¬ 
ance for all who learned of them. 

It was this trust of knowledge and beauty which 
our Guardians of the Fire held faithfully, and 
handed on to all the races of Europe who came after. 


CHAPTER XVI 


PHILIP AND ALEXANDER 

T HE country of Macedonia was a large king¬ 
dom to the north and west of Thessaly, reach¬ 
ing from the AEgean coasts almost over to the 
Ionian Sea, but so far in history it had not seemed 
to be of any great importance. The Greeks looked 
on its people as hardly half civilized. 

The tribes from whom the Trojans and Phrygians 
were descended had come down out of Macedonia, 
ages before; and the people who still lived there 
had been a race of strong barbarians for many 
centuries. Yet they had a kinship to the Greeks of 
Hellas and a love for the same manly and warlike 
actions. They were ruled by a king in a fashion 
almost as ancient as that of Agamemnon or Mene- 
laus, or of Achilles, to whom the Macedonians paid 
highest reverence as a hero belonging especially to 
them. 

Darius, the Persian king whose army had been 
forced back from Marathon, had sent a large force 
into Macedonia, and compelled her to give him the 
title of over-lord. And it was through Macedonia 
that the land forces of Xerxes had marched to Ther- 
mopyke. The fact that Macedonia kept faith with 
Persia would, of course, make the Greeks turn 
against her and look upon her as an outland nation. 
They also mistrusted her kings, who often played a 
163 


164 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


double game with the states of Hellas, never being 
quite faithful to the treaties they made. 

Those Macedonian rulers did not have an easy 
time, it is true, half-way between the Persian prov¬ 
inces and the states of Greece. Yet with every war 
or invasion by a foreign power Macedonia was grow¬ 
ing into a strength of its own. The kingdom was 
like a great ungainly boy, who has not yet learned 
to use his muscles well, but who is coming to stout 
manhood in spite of the jeers of his elders and the 
taunts of better trained neighbor lads. 

There had been several kings of Macedonia named 
Alexander. One of them, who was murdered, left 
two sons, Perdiccas and Philip. This was at the time 
when Pelopidas went up into Thessaly to make war 
on its tyrant. On the same expedition he made a 
treaty with Macedonia, by which the young Prince 
Philip was sent down to Thebes as a pledge of friend¬ 
ship. Here the boy was trained as a warrior by 
Epaminondas himself, and was given other teaching, 
such as was held needful for a young Greek noble of 
those days. So, while he was almost a prisoner for 
the time being, yet he was learning what would put 
him far above the Macedonian princes who had re¬ 
mained in their wilder country. 

He had scarcely reached full manhood when word 
came to Thebes that his brother, Perdiccas, had been 
slain in battle, leaving a helpless little son to sit on 
his throne. Philip managed to escape from Thebes 
and to reach his own country, where he took the rule 
into his own hands, as guardian of the young boy 
Amyntas. He now began to use the knowledge 
gained in those years at Thebes, where he had been 
the companion and pupil of a noble Greek general. 


PHILIP AND ALEXANDER 


165 


He determined that Macedonia, guided by himself, 
should not only be a free land, but should become 
the leading state of all Greece, and a mighty king¬ 
dom. 

Philip’s first act was to raise an army of hardy 
warriors. These he trained himself, until they had 
few equals in the known world; and with them he 
put an end to the invasions of the half savage nations 
round about, and made them respect and wonder at 
his power. He captured the great fortress of Amphi- 
polis, on the River Strymon, near the borders of 
Thrace. This gave him possession of the rich gold 
mines near by, which provided means for increasing 
his army and for buying allies. Macedonia was 
suddenly seen to be a rising power among the 
nations. The child Amyntas, who was feeble witted, 
never became king. Philip was soon given the title 
as well as the power. 

Much of the love which Philip’s people showed 
him was because of his justice toward them, and be¬ 
cause the training he gave them knit the wild hill 
tribes into one nation, with a national pride in their 
country. Yet before this time they had been as 
jealous of each other as were ever the states of 
Hellas! 

Philip had had some disputes with Athens about 
a treaty, in which each side had expected to be able 
to trick the other. It opened the eyes of the Athe¬ 
nian leaders to the greatness of the power that was 
rising in the north, ruled by this man who was a 
Greek by education. Demosthenes, a very eloquent 
speaker, tried to arouse the assembly of the people 
to the danger that might arise, urging them to resist 
Philip in every possible way, lest he should end by 


166 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


conquering all Hellas. He won great applause for 
his speeches, which became noted as the “Philip¬ 
pics” of Demosthenes, but Athens made no move to 
follow his advice. 

Early in his reign (356 B. C.) Philip had married 
Olympias, the daughter of a prince of Epirus. A 
year later a son was born to him, whom he called 
Alexander. This news meant nothing to the people 
of Athens, nor to any of the Greek states who may 
have happened to hear it at the time. They could not 
have dreamed that that tiny child would one day be 
the most powerful man in the world. 

If Demosthenes had really known what the years 
were bringing, he could not have been more anxious 
to arouse his countrymen against the Macedonian 
king, who was making every effort to persuade the 
Greek states to count Macedonia as one of them¬ 
selves. 

A Sacred War was being fought in Hellas, just 
then (355-346 B. C.). The men of Pliocis had been 
accused of claiming lands which were the rightful 
possession of the god Apollo, lands which ought to 
be held only by his priests. The Phocians, angry at 
this, seized the shrine at Delphi, and used the gold 
they found there to buy over troops to aid them. 

There was so much treasure stored at Delphi that 
the Phocians soon raised a large army, and the 
other Greek states appealed to King Philip to take 
part with them. He came down from Macedonia 
with a large force, and the rebel Phocians were soon 
glad to beg for peace. 

To show their gratitude for his help, the council 
of men from the different Greek states which had 
charge of the property of the Delphic shrine and held 


PHILIP AND ALEXANDER 


167 


much political power made the Macedonian king 
their president. This honor tilled his heart with joy, 
as it showed that, instead of being looked down on 
as an outland barbarian, he was at last counted as 
one of themselves by the Greek princes. He was 
also given chief authority over the Pythian games. 
When these were over, he led his army back into 
Macedonia and watched for the next move in his 
own game. While he was waiting, he seized every 
chance to make friends among neighboring states, 
and to increase his army in size and power. 

Athens remained hostile to Philip, and no gifts 
or kindnesses from him could win over Demosthenes, 
who spoke so bitterly against him that at last he 
stirred up the Athenian citizens and made them un¬ 
derstand what he meant. They sent out messengers 
to the different Greek states, trying to form a league 
to act against Macedonia. This meant war, and 
Philip was quite ready for it. His forces marched 
down into Boeotia and met the allied armies of 
Athens and Thebes at a place called Chaeronea, where 
he defeated them and forced them to fly in every 
direction. Among those who fled most swiftly was 
Demosthenes. 

Alexander, the young prince, though only a boy 
of eighteen, commanded part of the Macedonian 
army in this battle and fought gloriously. 

Instead of pushing his victory and making him¬ 
self tyrant of all Greece, Philip acted with generous 
kindness toward the states. He tried to bring them 
into full union, as he had done with his own hill 
'tribes, so that together they might oppose Persia 
and bring freedom to the Greek colonies in Asia 
Minor. This plan was really taking shape and Philip 


168 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


was about to march into Asia, when a man named 
Pausanias, whom an officer of Philip’s had injured, 
stabbed and killed him. The kingdom of Macedonia, 
with all its growing importance, passed into the 
hands* of the young prince who had helped his father 
win the battle of Chseronea (338 B. C.). 

There had been omens at the birth of Alexander 
which had made many people prophesy greatness for 
him in years to come. On the same day an impor¬ 
tant victory was won by one of Philip’s generals. 
Over at the Olympian games, the horses of the 
Macedonian king had taken a prize in the chariot 
races. And it was that same day that saw the 
burning of the temple of Diana at Ephesus, counted 
one of the wonders of the world. 

While the boy was quite young, Philip chose 
Aristotle, one of Plato’s wisest pupils, to be his 
son’s teacher; and through all his life Alexander 
paid honor to his tutor, and often turned to him for 
counsel. As a lad of thirteen, the young prince had 
tamed and ridden a beautiful and fiery horse which 
none of the royal grooms could ride. Yet his power 
was merely the use of common sense. He had seen 
the horse’s nervousness at sight of his own moving 
shadow on the ground. Once his head was turned 
from it, the boy was able to mount him and soon to 
control him without trouble. 

At sixteen Alexander had been left to rule over 
Macedonia while his father was absent on an eastern 
expedition. At eighteen, he had led his troops 
against the Sacred Band of the Thebans, whom none 
had ever conquered. He fought against them at 
Chseronea until all were slain. 

Now at twenty he was king, with all the power and 


PHILIP AND ALEXANDER 


169 


with all the enemies that his father had had. He 
needed all his abilities to handle them. It is said 
that Alexander had often resented his father’s many 
victories, grieving because Philip would leave him 
no worlds to conquer. But now, in spite of his 
father’s successes, he found plenty to do. 

Many of the provinces which had submitted to 
Philip thought this their chance to free themselves. 
Alexander had to show them that his hand was firm 
upon them, that he was king and no weak boy. 
Athens had heard of Philip’s death with joy, but 
when his son marched into Greece with a powerful 
army, she was quick to send her citizens to greet 
him and ask for his friendship. 

Nearly all Hellas followed the example of Athens, 
and at Corinth a council of the Greek states elected 
Alexander general of the forces for invading Asia. 
It was while he was in Corinth that he came, one day, 
upon the queer old philosopher, Diogenes, whose aim 
was to do without all bodily comforts. His only 
shelter was a great earthen tub, and his only gar¬ 
ment a coarse woolen cloak. He had been known to 
go around the city with a lantern, peering here and 
there, and telling those who questioned him that he 
was trying to find an honest man. 

Alexander, hearing of him, went to see what man¬ 
ner of man he was, and found him lying on the 
ground in the sun. He would make no civil answer 
to the young king’s questions. At last Alexander 
asked if there was not something which he desired. 
44 Yes,” Diogenes told him. “I would have you 
stand away from between me and the sun!” The 
courtiers laughed, but the king understood the in¬ 
dependence of the man so well that he told them: 


170 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


“If I were not Alexander, I would choose to be 
Diogenes!” 

Alexander was called away from Corinth in haste. 
Thrace had rebelled against his power. While he 
was bringing back order there, Thebes took up arms, 
believing a rumor that he was dead. But the king 
himself was so close behind the bringers of false 
tidings that he appeared under the walls of the 
Boeotian city, stormed it, and levelled it with the 
ground. The only house left unharmed was that of 
the poet Pindar, whose writings the king loved and 
admired. Such of the Thebans as were not slain in 
the fight, Alexander sold into slavery. Greece had 
had its lesson! 

The allied armies were soon ready to march for 
the east, along the road by which Xerxes had in¬ 
vaded Greece years before. Alexander himself 
sailed directly across the AEgean to the old site at 
Troy, where he made a solemn sacrifice at the huge 
barrow-tomb of Achilles, his great hero-ancestor. 
Then, joining the army, he marched with it against 
the Persian forces. He defeated them by the River 
Granicus, with great slaughter. In this battle he 
fought so recklessly that he was nearly overpowered. 
But he was saved from death by Clytus, the son of 
his old nurse, whom he had made his devoted friend. 

Alexander’s next move was toward Caria. The 
cities of Sardis and Ephesus surrendered to him 
without offering any resistance. lie passed on into 
Phrygia, and here, at the city of Gordium, he saw 
in an old temple the chariot of King Midas. It had 
its yoke and pole fastened together with a curiously 
tangled knot, and the old saying was told him, that 
whoever should loosen it would make himself master 


PHILIP AND ALEXANDER 


171 


of all Asia. The young king wasted no time fum¬ 
bling at the cord, but drew his sword and severed 
the knot, saying that so he fulfilled the prophecy. 

Filled with eagerness, Alexander now hurried his 
army onward to meet the Persian king, another 
Darius. But the name of his great ancestor brought 
to this ruler of the Persian Empire no good fortune. 
His mighty army met that of Alexander at Issus 
(333 B. C.), and was shattered. The Persian king 
himself managed to escape, but all his family fell 
into the hands of the conqueror. Alexander treated 
them with all the respect due to noble ladies, and 
soon won their affection by his boyish gentleness 
toward them. 

Instead of pursuing Darius, the Macedonian king 
now went southward into Syria and Phoenicia, where 
lie captured many rich cities. Among these were 
Sidon and Damascus, as well as the city of Tyre. 
The latter resisted for a long time, but after a siege 
of seven months fell into his hands, and was burned. 

Then he went onward toward Jerusalem, where 
the people submitted and were treated with kind¬ 
ness. The young king even offered reverent sacrifice 
in the temple of the Holy City. Later on, when he 
had conquered Egypt, he sent for Jews to come and 
settle in the city which he built there and called for 
himself, Alexandria. They made some of its best 
and most prosperous citizens. 


CHAPTER XVII 


ALEXANDER EXTENDS HIS CONQUESTS 



LEXANDER was only twenty-four years old 
when he led his army down through Syria and 


Palestine, taking the great walled city, ‘ 4 Gaza 
of the Philistines,” as he went. On he marched 
into Egypt, whose Persian satrap had but one 
thought on hearing of his coming. This was to yield 
his authority to the conqueror without an hour’s 
delay, and so to avoid an unequal battle, for he had 
no forces to aid him. He knew only too well that 
he was entirely cut off from his own country, not 
only by the vast army which had swept around the 
eastern end of the Mediterranean’s shores like a 
sudden storm, but also by a Macedonian fleet which 
had appeared from the north and was now lying off 
the city of Pelusium, at the eastern mouth of the 
Nile. 

The native Egyptians, who had already submitted 
to Persian rule, had no idea whatever of trying to 
resist the young Macedonian king. 

Alexander sent his ships up the River Nile; at 
Memphis, the capital city of the Pharaohs, he made 
sacrifice in the temple to the gods of Egypt. This 
action filled the people with joy, as their Persian 
rulers had treated all the religious customs of the 
country with scorn. Alexander showed all respect 
to the customs and religion of those whom he con¬ 
quered, but he never lost any time in convincing his 


172 


ALEXANDER EXTENDS HIS CONQUESTS 173 


new subjects that his widening empire was to be 
looked upon as a Greek realm. 

If ancient Egypt had once sent her learning across 
the Mediterranean to uplift Greece, the city of her 
Pharaohs now saw how the people of that rugged 
little land overseas had profited by it. Alexander 
held Greek games at Memphis, and many noted 
athletes and poets came over from Hellas to take 
part in the competitions. 

Stop and think for a minute what it might have 
meant to the after history of the world, and even 
to the people of our own day, if that young half 
barbarian prince, Philip of Macedon, had not felt 
so strongly within him that no honor in all the world 
was so high as that of being counted one of them¬ 
selves by the free-born Greeks. The Macedonian 
king must have been able to feel, under all the selfish 
disputes and ignoble quarrels, among the states of 
Hellas, a spirit that was true and grand and fine, 
and worth claiming kinship with, or he would not 
have clung so to his ambition to make his empire 
Greek. 

Philip could have gone on conquering just as well 
without that aim, and could have brought men fully 
as wise from the far east to teach his son, instead 
of giving him the education of a noble Greek lad 
and so planting in him, ,too, the love and reverence 
for Greek ways and learning. Macedonia was really 
halfway between the East, which was Asia, and the 
West, which was Europe. A little thing could have 
swung her toward either civilization. If Philip had 
chosen Eastern ways, all Europe might have taken 
its learning and after ways of growth from Asia, 


174 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


instead of from the land of Socrates and Plato and 
Pericles. 

There is something that concerns every one today 
in the ambition which sent both Philip of Macedonia 
and his son Alexander out to conquer the world that 
they knew. Both carried with them as they went 
the standards of a race that has hardly changed, 
either in language or ways, from the days when 
Homer sang before her free-born warriors, even 
down to this twentieth century after Christ. It is 
to be remembered, too, that in all those twenty-eight 
hundred years there has never been a generation in 
Hellas which has not loved and reverenced Homer. 
It may be that to Alexander of Macedon, who took 
the richest jewel casket of the Persian king to hold 
his copy of the Iliad, we owe a debt for his large 
share in keeping alive that old Greek spirit which 
made Hellas “Guardian of the Fire” for men of 
today. 

If Alexander had never conquered anything be¬ 
yond Egypt, he did a thing there which would have 
kept his name alive. That was the founding of a 
great Greek city, called Alexandria, for himself, at 
the eastern mouth of the Nile. It was a splendid 
place for a trading port, and it grew steadily, and 
became one of the world centers of learning. 

Alexander himself traced out the plans for its 
walls and market-places and temples and for the 
harbor, which has kept its usefulness for more than 
two thousand years. Schools grew up there and in 
after years its immense library and museum (or 
college) drew wise men and students from all quar¬ 
ters of the world. These Alexandrian scholars kept 
for us all that is known of ancient wisdom, not only 


ALEXANDER EXTENDS HIS CONQUESTS 175 


in history, but in geography and astronomy and 
mathematics. Euclid himself, whose geometry is 
still studied in schools of today, was a Greek of 
Alexandria, three hundred years before Christ. 

Alexander had in mind something else that he 
wanted to do before going on from Egypt. All 
through his life courtiers had flattered him by whis¬ 
pering in his hearing that he was not really the son 
of Philip. They asserted that he was a demigod, 
whose father was Zeus himself; and sometimes the 
hoy acted as if he himself believed it. 

Far across the African desert, in Libya, there was 
an Egyptian temple, famous among the Greeks, who 
made the journey there to offer sacrifices when they 
needed an especial favor from the ruler of the gods. 
It was the temple of Zeus, or Jupiter Ammon. 
Alexander decided to visit it, although it meant a 
long and toilsome journey across the burning sand 
and under the blazing sun of Africa. When he 
reached the oasis where it stood, he made rich gifts 
to the Father of the Gods. There the priests, to 
win his favor and flatter him, spoke to him as if he 
were really the earthly son of the god whom they 
served. 

This act accomplished, Alexander led his army 
back out of Egypt and up the coast as far as Tyre. 
He was now ready to set out on an eastern expedition 
so remarkable that it is hard to believe it the 
achievement of a king not long out of boyhood. He 
aimed at Babylon first, and on the way there he was 
met by another immense army, collected, as his last 
hope, by Darius, the Persian king. 

At Arbela a mighty battle was fought (331 B. C.) 
and Darius was utterly defeated, though he was not 


176 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


captured nor slain. This victory meant that Babylon 
and Susa and Persepolis, the chief cities of the 
Persian Empire, must fall into the hands of Alex¬ 
ander. To try to stay his enemy from making fur¬ 
ther conquests, Darius wrote and offered to share 
his dominions with him, if he would make peace. 
Alexander, determined to make Darius his prisoner, 
refused; but before he could realize this ambition, 
the Persian king was slain by some of his own sub¬ 
jects, who hoped by that act to win the favor of 
Alexander. The young conqueror treated Darius’ 
body with all the honor due a king, and sent it to 
Persepolis to be buried with the other rulers of 
Persia. After this he assumed the title which Darius 
had borne, “Shah-in-Shah,” or “King of Kings.” 

Not satisfied with this mighty land which was now 
his own, Alexander next looked eastward toward 
India. If he had gone around the Mediterranean 
like a storm, he was now sweeping across Asia like 
a hurricane, leveling all power before his own. He 
marched into what is now called Afghanistan, and 
then down into northwestern India, conquering all 
the country as far as the River Indus and its upper 
branch, the Sutlej. Porus, king of that land, came 
against him with a vast army mounted on elephants, 
which the Macedonians had never before seen. But 
elephants.could not save the Indian army from de¬ 
feat, and Porus became the subject of Alexander. 

But this eastern land itself was now conquering 
Alexander. He had grown to enjoy its feasting and 
its soft luxury, and he now lived as an eastern prince- 
instead of as an active, hardy Greek warrior. In 
one drunken feast he even slew his dear friend 
Clytus. In another his comrade Hephaestion drank 


ALEXANDER EXTENDS HIS CONQUESTS 177 

himself to death, much to the grief of the king, who 
built him a wonderful tomb. The result of all this 
was that when his soldiers refused to march any 
farther into unknown lands, he had no longer the 
energy to compel them to obey him. He returned 
with them to Babylon, where he married Roxana, a 
Persian princess, amid feasting and rejoicing. 

On the march back to Babylon embassies met him 
from nearly all parts of the known world, making 
suit for the favor of so mighty a conqueror. From 
the Phoenician colonies of Spain, from France and 
Africa, from the Black Sea, and from Italy they 
came, bringing him rich gifts. It almost seemed as 
though those countries wanted to buy him off from 
trying to conquer them too. 

But there was one country, slowly growing to be 
among the powers that counted, from which no envoy 
was sent to the King of Kings, Alexander. A little 
fortified town, built on seven low hills near the River 
Tiber, in Italy, was steadily gaining in influence and 
wealth. The empire conquered by Alexander was 
one day to hear of Rome and the Romans. 

The envoys from the western lands need have had 
no fear of conquest by Alexander. A fever attacked 
the great king, and the man who had made a vast 
empire his own had no strength to resist a creeping 
illness. He died at Babylon (323 B. C.), when only 
thirty-two years old. In twelve years he had made 
nearly all the known world bow to his power, and 
now it was ended. 


CHAPTER XVIII 

MACEDONIA AND ROME 

T HERE is a tradition that when Alexander lay 
on his death bed, with his generals around him, 
he was asked to whom he left his great em¬ 
pire, and that he drew off his royal signet ring, 
whispering, “To the strongest.’’ But who was the 
strongest? He had left a half-brother who was 
feeble minded, and a baby son. Could either of these 
rule the broad lands conquered by Alexander, and 
hold together his Greek allies in the union of which 
the great conqueror had dreamed! 

The generals could not answer. They took council 
together and decided that the little son of Alexander 
and the feeble-minded brother, whose name was. 
Arridaeus, should be proclaimed as joint rulers of 
the empire, and that four generals should act as 
their guardians. The realm was to be divided into 
thirty-three provinces, governed for the two kings 
by men whom Alexander had had for his chief offi¬ 
cers. These captains believed themselves able to 
keep the empire together. 

The states of Hellas had been watching the world- 
sweep of Alexander’s army, wondering what it 
would mean to them. They questioned whether the 
great king meant to come back and force them to 
bow to his power, or whether he would respect their 
freedom. The Spartan king, Agis, had never given 
allegiance to the Macedonian alliance. With Alex- 
178 


MACEDONIA AND ROME 


179 


ander far away, he had ventured by himself to begin 
a war against Macedonia. 

Only a few of the Peloponnesian states were will¬ 
ing to help Agis. The people of Athens also held 
back, advised by Phocion, a noble citizen, and at 
first by Demosthenes himself. It was well for them 
that they did, for the king’s regent in Macedonia 
brought down an army and soon crushed out the 
Spartan rebellion. Agis lost his life in battle, and 
Spartan hostages were taken by the regent to in¬ 
sure peace. 

In the meantime Athens was prospering. Having 
no wars to fight, she was free to build and trade, 
and to drill her young men into fine warriors. 

It was just a year before Alexander died that 
Harpalus, a dishonest treasurer of the great king, 
came sailing to the shore of Attica with thirty ships 
and a large company of paid soldiers. He had also 
a quantity of money, which he had stolen from 
Alexander’s treasury, and his purpose was to arouse 
Attica to lead a rebellion against his master. But 
Athens was not to be tempted. She would not even 
permit him to land his troops. 

Harpalus took away his paid soldiers and landed 
them in the southern part of Sparta, where he left 
them and went back to Athens, hoping to use his 
stolen money in buying friends there. Before he 
had been there long, officers of Alexander sent to 
demand that he should be surrendered to them. The 
Athenians took the advice of Demosthenes in this 
matter, and arrested Harpalus. The treasure was 
put in safe keeping at the Acropolis, and word was 
sent that the Athenians would give up the treasurer 
only on condition that Alexander sent a special 


180 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


officer to take him and the stolen money back to the 
king. 

Harpalus did not wait for the coming of any spe¬ 
cial royal officer. He escaped from the Athenians 
and rejoined his men in Sparta. Soon his men 
quarreled with him and killed him. 

The money at the Acropolis, taken from Harpalus, 
was now put in charge of certain citizens of Athens, 
of whom Demosthenes was one. Nobody had 
troubled to count it, but all knew that it amounted 
to about seven hundred talents. Rumors began to 
be whispered around that this treasure was 
being used by Demosthenes and his party to bribe 
the people to side with them. Search was made, and 
it was found that at least half the sum had vanished. 
Even if Demosthenes had not taken this money, or 
part of it, he had undertaken to guard it. He was 
tried and sentenced to pay a, fine of fifty talents. 
He did not own so much, he told them, so he was 
put in prison instead. From there he managed to 
escape and leave the city. 

About this time word of Alexander ’s death came 
and Athens was persuaded to join in an attempt to 
free the states of northern Greece from Macedonian 
control. An army was raised, which marched north¬ 
ward to Thermopylae. At first it was able to drive 
back the regent, Antipater, with some loss; but in a 
final battle the Greek general was slain, and Anti¬ 
pater was able to break the agreement between the 
rebel states. 

When the Macedonian regent came marching 
south, Athens submitted to him at once. He de¬ 
manded that the men who had stirred up her cit¬ 
izens against Macedonia should be given into his 


MACEDONIA AND ROME 


181 


hands. Demosthenes, being the chief offender, man¬ 
aged to escape in time, and took refuge in the temple 
of Poseidon, at Calauria, where he thought he would 
surely be safe. But no temple was respected by the 
men of Antipater. They surrounded him and took 
him prisoner. 

The once powerful Athenian orator asked for per¬ 
mission to write a message of farewell to his friends, 
and when it was granted he drew out his tablet and 
reed pen, pretending to write. But the pen was 
poisoned. He put it to his lips and died a few 
moments later. 

There was no longer any real resistance to Mace¬ 
donia among the people of Athens. Phocion, a quiet 
and cautious man, was now their leader, and he had 
no desire to let them bring on war with anybody. 
Athens sank more and more under the mastery of 
Antipater. The regent was fairly kind to the 
Athenians. He had no wish to make unnecessary 
enemies, when the Macedonian Empire was so 
unsteady. 

The truth was that Alexander ’s generals had not 
been able to agree, even from the first. Perdiccas, 
the chief among them, started back to Macedonia 
with the baby king, and Antipater knew that his 
coming would mean the end of his own authority in 
Macedonia. He made war on Perdiccas, and was 
joined by other generals who were jealous of losing 
their power. Soon the whole empire was breaking 
apart and falling away from the heirs of Alexander. 

Athens would have kept out of the quarrel, if it 
had been possible; but Phocion was accused of 
favoring the son of Antipater, when his father died. 
This meant that the other Macedonian generals 


182 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


would probably .declare war on the city. Athens had 
no appetite for war, so Phocion and some other lead¬ 
ing citizens who were his friends, were hurriedly 
tried and sentenced to death. They were given 
hemlock to drink, and that was the end. Athens had 
no more loyal patriots to sacrifice. 

Phocion, though neither a very wise man nor a 
great soldier, had loved his country and wanted to 
keep it free. Writers have called him “The Last of 
the Athenians,” for after his death the city never 
won back its old time liberty. Its noble Parthenon 
might be counted among the Seven Wonders of the 
World, ranking with the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, 
the great statue called the Colossus of Rhodes, the 
royal tomb of Mausolus at Halicarnassus, the Pyra¬ 
mids of Egypt, the Hanging Gardens of the kings 
at Babylon, and the Pharos (or great lighthouse) 
at the port of Alexandria; but the spirit which had 
made the building of the Parthenon possible was 
dying, crushed out by the warring tyrants of the 
Macedonian Empire. Once or twice a league was 
made between the states, with the hope of restoring 
freedom to Hellas; but only one of these alliances, 
the Achaean League, lasted for any length of time 
(281-146 B. C.). 

That Achaean League of towns in the Pelopon¬ 
nesus was able to take and hold Corinth, and to drive 
out the Macedonian troops. It even entered into a 
treaty with certain Roman envoys, who wished its 
help in putting down piracy through the Ionian Sea 
and among the islands. 

But Sparta took no part in any efforts to restore 
the old days of liberty. The stern customs that had 
made her a power in Hellas had fallen out of use, 





The Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Gizeh 




















184 


THE LIGHT BEARERS 


and her kings no longer lived hardily, scorning 
luxury. There were plots and counterplots; but the 
after history of this once brave state, as well as of 
her neighbor clans and cities, became a record of 
quarrels and treachery among themselves. No one 
trusted his closest ally. 

This state of affairs continued for about a hun¬ 
dred years after the Achaean League had won suc¬ 
cess at Corinth, and at last came a time when Sparta 
and HCtolia rose to make a last struggle against 
Macedonia. They sent an envoy westward to the 
Romans of Italy and asked their aid against the 
enemy. 

Rome was now growing to be a great and power¬ 
ful nation, ambitious to reach out into new lands. 
She sent an army into Greece; but, after helping 
the Spartans to win a victory, she had no idea of 
leaving Hellas to itself. On one pretext after an¬ 
other, the Roman forces were sent back again and 
again into the coveted little peninsula. At last a 
strong army came and defeated the power of Mace¬ 
donia, once and for all (146 B. C.). 

It was at the Isthmian Games that Quintus 
Flaminius, the Roman Consul, announced to the 
Greeks that Macedonia had submitted to Rome. 

It was some time before the Greeks realized the 
meaning of the fact. Rome wanted Hellas and 
meant to take possession of it. Soon the Achfean 
League was accused of helping the Macedonian king 
in an attempt to throw off the Roman yoke. As a 
punishment, Hellas became the Roman province of 
Achaia. 

And yet the burning brand was only being passed 
along to a new Guardian of the Fire. Out over the 


MACEDONIA AND ROME 


185 


great Roman Empire that was to be, the learning 
and customs of the Greeks were to spread. And so 
many fires were lighted by that wisdom-flame which 
she had carried so faithfully, that the great work 
of Hellas was really finished. It was her lot to rest 
until—after many hundreds of years—she rose 
again, a free nation. 














INDEX 


AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 


Note: In the case of words whose pronunciation is not clearly indi¬ 
cated by their accentuation and syllabication, sounds of letters have 
been denoted as follows: a, like a in day; 5, like a, only less prolonged; 
a, like a in can; a, like a in car; a, like a in ball; e, like ee in keep; e, like 
e, only less prolonged; 6, like e in let; e, like e in there; e, like e in certain; 
I, like i in line; I, like i in tin; o, like o in note; 6, like o, only less pro¬ 
longed; 6, like o in cfit; 6, like o in orb; do, like oo in noon; do, like oo in 
foot; u, like u in use; ii, like the French u; y, like i; se and oe have the 
same sound that e would have in the same position; c and ch, like k; 
5, like s; g, like g in get; g, likej; ch, as in German ach; ft, like ni in minion; 
n denotes the nasal sound in French, which is less pronounced than 
ng in long. 


Academy, the, at Athens, 122,123, 
126, 128, 130 
A chae'an Age, 15 
Achaean League, 182, 184 
A ehil'les (lez), 40, 67; tomb of, 170 
Acropolis, the, at Athens, 36, 57, 
62, 95; buildings on, 108; 

burned, 115; restored, 117; re¬ 
constructed, plate, 118 
iEgean Sea, 23, 26, 40, 41; islands 
in, 41 

JE gi'na, island, 96, 102, 136 
M ne'as, his flight from Troy, 155 
M o'li ans, the, early settlements 
of, in Asia Minor, 42 
.Eolis (eo'lis), 42, 77 
iEs'chy lus, tragic poet, 127 
iEt'na, Mount, 161 
Afghanistan, Alexander enters, 
176 

Africa, 23, 177 
Ag a mem'non, 24, 28, 29 
Age of Per'icles, 123, 128 
Age sil'ius, King of Sparta, 144, 
145, 146, 147, 149 
A'gis, King of Sparta, 178, 179 


A1 qi bi'a des(dez), personal traits, 
131; favors the Sicilian Ex¬ 
pedition, 137; charged with mu¬ 
tilation of the Hermae, 137; 
his flight and counsel to the 
Spartans, 138; his death, 139 
Ale mae on'idae, 60, 74 
Alexander the Great, his youth 
and accession to the throne, 
166, 168; destroys Thebes, 168; 
enters Greece, 169; at the battle 
of the Granicus, 170; cuts the 
Gordian knot, 171; at the battle 
of Issus, 171; at the siege of 
Tyre, 171; in Egypt, 171; at 
Arbela, 175; at Babylon and 
Persepolis, 176, 177; in India, 
176; his marriage, 177; his 
death, 177; partition of his em¬ 
pire, 178 

Alexandria in Egypt founded, 174 
Alexandrian Library, 174 
Alphabet, adapted from the Phoe¬ 
nician, 32 
A1 phe'us, river, 68 
Al'tis, sacred grove, 71 


188 


INDEX 


Am phe' a, 53 
Amphi'polis, 165 
Amyn'tas, 165 

Anab'asis, Xenophon’s, 141, 143 
An tig'o ne, tragedy of Soph'ocles, 
128 

An tip'a ter, regent of Macedonia, 
180, 181 

Aph ro di'te, goddess, 17, 18, 19 
A pol'lo, god of the sun, 16; plate, 
52; his oracle at Delphi, 51, 73, 
113; his shrine robbed, 166 
Ar be'la, battle of, 175 
Ar ca'di a, 54 

Archons at Athens, 39, 55, 56 
A re op'a gus, the, 126 
A'res (rez), 17, 126 
Ar'go lis, 24 

Ar'gos, 27, 28, 29, 30, 104 
Ar is tl'des (dez), leader of Athens, 
89; opposes the naval policy of 
Themistocles, 93; is ostracized, 
93, 94; recalled, 102; patriotic 
service, 120; his death, 120 
Aris'todemuS) King of Sparta, 44 
A ris to gi'ton, the Athenian ty¬ 
rant, 64, 127 

Aristoi', nobles of Athens, 61 
Aristom'enes, prince of Messen'ia, 
53, 54 

Aristotle (ar'istotl), pupil of 
Plato, 168 

Arri'dse us, brother of Alexander, 
178 

Ar ta pher'nes (nez), Persian gen¬ 
eral, 81 

Ar tax erx'es (ez), King of Persia, 
140; plans to punish Greeks, 144 
Ar'te mis, goddess, 145; temple of, 
at Aulis, 145 

Asia Minor, 23; migrations to, of 
Greeks, 24, 41, 42; excavations 
in, 26; Greek colonies in, 77, 160 
A'sop us, river, 113 
A the'ne, goddess, 17; statue of, 
by Phidias, 18; temples of, 58, 
113 

Athenian houses, 126 
Athenians, the, 38; their rulers, 
55-65; their laws, 56, 57, 60, 61; 
political parties, 61 


Athens, 25; old and new, plate, 31; 
built around a fortress, 36} un¬ 
der kings, 38, 39; abandoned by 
Athenians, 110; sacked by the 
Persians, 111; rebuilding of, 
after the Persian wars, 115; in 
the Age of Pericles, 123-137; 
“City of the Olive Crown,” 
115, 125, 134, 146; “City of the 
Violet Crown,” 125; Thirty Ty¬ 
rants at, 139, 142; entered by 
Spartans, 139; submits to Mace¬ 
donia, 180 f 

Athletes’ Entrance to the Sta¬ 
dium at Olympia, plate, 75 
A'thos or Ath'os, Mount, Persian 
fleet wrecked near, 84, 85; loca¬ 
tion, 98 

At lan'tic ocean, 24 
At'reus, son of Pelops, 28 
Attica, country of Greece, 32, 38, 
39, 60, 62, 85 

Au' lis, city of Boeotia, 26, 145 

Babylon, great ancient city, 140, 
175, 176; marriage of Alexander 
at, 177 

Basi'leus, Greek word for king, 55 
Black Sea, 160, 177 
Boeotia (be o'shl a), Greek state, 
85, 145, 146, 167 
Bos'pho rus, the, 160 
Britain, 24 

Byzantium (bl zan'shi um), found¬ 
ing of, 160 

Cad'mus, son of Phoenician king, 
taught alphabet to Greeks, 32 
Cai'ro, 158 

Cam by'ses (sez), son of Cyrus, 
king of Persia, 80; conquers 
Egypt, Phoenicia, 81; killed, 81 
Car'ia, 78, 84, 123, 146, 159, 170 
Carthage, 139 

Ce cro'pi a, citadel of Athens, 
built by Cecrops, 30; land of, 
110 

Ce'crops, prince of Egypt, 30; 
walls of, 36 

Charilaus (kar il a'us), 45 
Chariot race, the, plate, 166 


INDEX 


189 


Chaer o ne'a, battle of, 167, 168 
China, 27 

Cimon, son of Miltiades, 120, 122; 

defeats Xerxes, 123 
Cith'aer on, Mount, 113 
“City of the Olive Crown,” see 
Athens 

“City of the Violet Crown,” see 
Athens 

Cleombrotus, Spartan general, 

110 

Cleom'enes, king of Sparta, 96 
Cly[tus, friend of Alexander, 170; 

killed by Alexander, 176 
Cod' rus, king of Athens, sacrifices 
himself, 38; mourned, 39, 45 
Colchis (kol'kis), 161 
Colonies, Greek; on the coast of 
Asia Minor, 24, 41; threatened 
by Persia, 62; fall of Lydia, 79; 
dominion of Cyrus, 79; con¬ 
quered by Darius, 84; Aeolian, 
42; on the Mediterranean coast, 
24, 140; in the Aegean islands, 
41; in Cor'si ca, France and 
Spain, 158; in Italy, 54, 151, 
161, 162; Sicily and in North 
Africa and Egypt, 158, 159 
Conon (ko'non), Athenian com¬ 
mander, 146 

Corcy'ra, now Cor'fu, 135 
Corinth, city-state, 25, 27, 74, 
76; Greek council at, 169; quar¬ 
rel with Corcyra, 135 
Co'rinth, Gulf of, 28 
Corinth, Isthmus of, 74, 110 
Cor on'ea, 146 
Cor'sica, 158 

Crete, island, settled by Dorians, 
78 

Cri'to, pupil of Socrates, 142 
Croe'sus, king of Lydia, 78 
Cu'mae, 161 

Cu nax'a, battle of, between Cyrus 
and Artaxerxes, 140 
Cy'lon, rebellion of, 57 
Cy'prlot, signs, 160 
Cy'prQs, 81; island of, 159, 160 
Cyre'ne, brought under Persian 
rule, 81 


Cyrus, king of Persia, conquers 
Greek colonies, 79; at Sar'dis, 
80 

Cy'rus, sa'trap of Persia, killed, 
140 

Damas'cus, 171 

Da'mon and Py'thias, 151, 152; 
plate, 153 

Darius, king of Per'sia,81;andthe 
Ionian cities, 84; his heralds, 
86; prepares third army to enter 
Greece, 87, 97; dies, 97 
Darius II, king of Persia, defeated 
by Alexander at Arbela, 175 
Da'tis, Persian general, 87 
De'los, shrine of Apollo, at, 142 
Del'phi, oracle, 51, 73, 110; sanc¬ 
tuary of Hellas, 71, 73; treas¬ 
ure-house, 91; shrine, 104, 146 
De me'ter, goddess, 147 
De'mos, people’s party of Athens, 
61 

Demosthenes, the orator, 165; 
his Philip'pics, 166; opposes 
Philip, 167; and Alexander, 179, 
180; taken prisoner, 181 
Dia'na, goddess, temple of, 168 
Diogenes (dloj'enez), philo io- 
pher, 169 

Diony'sia, festival, 128 
Dionysius, tvrant of Syracuse, 
151, 152, 153 

Di o ny'sus, theater of, at Athens, 
127; plate, 129 
Dipylon, 126 
Dorian invaders, 30 
Do'rians, 29, 38, 41, 43, 45, 77 
Do'ris, Greek colony in Asia 
Minor, 41, 77 
Do ^is'cus, plain of, 101 
Draco, code of laws, 56, 62; laws 
repealed, 61 

“Earth and water,” tribute de¬ 
manded by Darius, 86: iEgina, 
yields, 96; Xerxes demands, 
103 

Earth quakes, 12, 30 
Ecbata'na, Persian capital, 81, 
82 


190 


INDEX 


Egypt, prehistoric age in, 23, 24; 
settlers from, 25; conquered by 
Cambyses, 81; cities of, 158; 
submits to Alexander, 172 
Egyptians, 32 
Eleli'sis, Bay of, 62 
E'lis, Greek state, 68; games of, 
70, 71; sacred grove of, 71 
E pam i non'das, 147; at Leuctra, 
149; his death, 150 
Eph'e sus, 41, 168, 170 
Ephialtes, Greek traitor, 107 
E pi'rus, district of, 146 
Er ech the'um, the, 126 
E re'tri a, aids Ionians, 85; de¬ 
stroyed by the Persians, 87 
Eu bce'a, island, 89, 141 
Eu cles, see Thersippus 
Eu'clid, the mathematician, 175 
Eu rip'i des (dez), tragic poet, 109, 
110, 138 

Europe (yur'rop), 23 
Euro pe'ans, 32 

Eurybiades (dez), commander, 105, 
liO, 111, 114 

Euxine (uk'sin) Sea, Greek col¬ 
onies on, 160, 161 
Euxinus, Pontus, 160 

Far-Darter, 67, 73 
See Apollo 

France, Greek colonies, in, 177 
Frieze of the Archers, the, plate, 82 

Galley, see Ships, Greek 
Gaza, reduced by Alexander, 172 
Girgen'ti, temple of, 162 
Golden Fleece, legend concerning, 
19 

Gordian knot, 170, 171 
Gor'di um, 170 
Grae'cia, Greece, 13 
Graik'oi, early name of Greeks, 13 
Gra ni'cus, battle of the, 170 
Greece, homeland of the Hellenes, 
13; divisions of, 38, 41; islands 
round, 41; influence of, 13 
Greek culture, 156 
Greeks, their legends, 15-21, 24, 
25; their mvthology, 16, 17; 
their early literature, 24; their 
early art, 24. See Hellenes 


Hades (ha'dez), 17 
Hal i car nas'sus, mausoleum at, 
182 

Hanging Gardens of Babylon, 182 
Har mo'di us, the Athenian ty¬ 
rant, 64 

Har'palus, 179, 180 
Hector, Trojan hero, 67 
Hel'en, wife of Menelaus, 19,29,46 
Hel'i con, Mount, 146 
Hel'las, term defined, 13 
Hel'len, son of Zeus, 162 
Hellenes (hel'enz), 13, 161. See 
Greeks 

Hel'les pont, the, bridged by 
Xerxes, 100, 160 

He'lots, the, at Sparta, 34; mas¬ 
sacres of, by Spartans, 50 
He phses'ti on, 176 
He'ra, goddess, 16, 19 
Her'cules, 17, 29, 40 
Her a cli'dae, 38; return of the, 29 
Hermes (her'mez), 17, 58; images 
of broken, 137, 138; plate, 72 
Heroic Age, the, 25, 26 
Hipparchus, Athenian tyrant, 64, 
74, 122 

Ilip'pi as, 64, 65, 73; driven from 
Athens, 74; conspires with 
Artaphernes, 81; goes to Susa, 
83; guides the Persians to 
Marathon, 87; slain, 90 
His sar'lik, excavations at, 26 
Homer, 19, 20, 26 
Homeric poems, date and author¬ 
ship of, 17, 19-21, 29 
Hy dar'nes (nez), Persian com¬ 
mander, 91 

Iliad (Il'iad), 20, 24, 29, 55; 
Alexander treasures, 174. See 
Homeric poems. 

I'lium, Troy, 17 

Immor'tals, the, favorite troops 
of Xerxes, 107 
In'dia, 176 
In'dus, river, 176 
I o'ni a, in early times, 29, 38; 
cities of, 41 

Ionians, settlements of, in Asia 
Minor, 41, 77. See Ionia 


INDEX 


191 


Is'sus, battle of, 171 
Isthmian games, the, 74, 184 
Italy, 12, 54, 177 
Ith'a ca, 19 
Itho'me, 51, 53 

Jason, legendary prince of Thes¬ 
saly, 17, 32, 161 
Juno, goddess, 16. See Hera 
Ju'piter, 16, 175. See Zeus 

Lag e dse'mon, old name of Sparta, 
80; city of, 88 

Lac e dse mo'ni ans. See Spar¬ 
tans 

La'tins, 13 

Le on'i das, king of Sparta, at 
Thermopylae, 105-109 
Leuc'tra, battle of, 150 
Lo'cris. Greek state, 85 
Long Walls at Athens, 93, 117, 
134; pulled down by the Pelo¬ 
ponnesians, 139; rebuilt, 139; 
repaired, 146 

Ly cur'gus, law giver, 45-51; dras¬ 
tic laws of, 46-50 
Libya, temple at, 175 
Lydia, 78; conquered by Cyrus 
the Great, 79; import of this for 
Greece, 79 

Ly san'der, Spartan general, en¬ 
ters Athens, 139 

Mag e do'ni a, 134, 150, submits 
to Darius, 163; its rulers, 164; 
under Philip, 164-167; Alexan¬ 
der’s accession, 168 
Magna Graecia (mag'na gre'shla ), 

, the name, 161; colonies of, 162 
Magne'sia, 120 
Man ti ne'a, battle of, 149 
Maps, 14, 22 

Mar'a thon, Bay of, 72; battle of, 
73-75 

Mar do'ni us, Persian general, 97; 

defeated, 112 
Marseil'les, 158 
Mas sa'li a, founded, 158 
Mau so le'um at Halicarnassus, 
182 

Medes (medz), the, 78, 97 


Mediterranean Sea, 12, 23, 25, 32, 
78 

Medon'tidae, 55, 56 
Me'gacles, 58, 60 
Me'gara, 57, 58, 62, 63, 160 
Memphis, in Egypt, 172, 173 
Men e la'us, 19, 29, 30, 46 
Mer'cury. See Hermes 
Mes se'ni a, its physical character¬ 
istics, 51, 53 

Mes se'ni an wars, 53, 54 
Messenians, conquered by Spar¬ 
tans, migrate, 54 
Messina, 54 
Midas, King, 170 
Mile'tus, 159 

Mil ti'a des (dez), 88, 89; in com¬ 
mand at Marathon, 91, 92 
Minerva. See Athene 
Min'o taur, the, 17, 32 
Myc'ale, battle of, 114 
My ge'nae, seat of prehistoric race, 
24, 25, 27, 28, 36 
Mysia, 78 

Na'ples, 161, 162 
Naucratis (na'kra tis) founded, 
158, 159 
Nauplia', 161 
Nax'os, island of, 87 
Ne'me a, 76 

Ne me'an games, the, 76 
Nep'tune. See Poseidon 
Nicias (nish'i as or nig'i as), Athe¬ 
nian general, 132; opposed Si¬ 
cilian Expedition, 137; in Sicily, 
138 

Nile, the, 138, 174 

Odysseus (5 dis'us), 19 
Odyssey (Sd'I si), subject of the, 
i9, 20, 29, 46. See Homeric 
poems 

O lym'pi a, location of, 68; Ath¬ 
letes' Entrance to Stadium, at, 
plate, 75; national Greek games 
at, 68, 70, 76; temple of Zeus at, 
68; plate, 69 

O lym'pi ads, mode of designating 
dates by, 70 

Olympian games, the, 68, 70, 71, 
76 


192 


INDEX 


O lym'pus, Mount, 16, 46 
Oracles among the Greeks. See 
oracle of Delphi 
Os'tracism (sizm), 77, 78 
Os'tra kon, 77 

Pal'estine, 24, 172 
Pallas Athe'ne. See Athene 
Pan-Hellen'ic, All-Grecian, 73, 76 
Pa'rian marble, 73 
Pa'ris, son of king of Troy, 19 
Par nas'sus, Mount, 73 
Pa/ros, Island of, 92, 103 
Par'the non, the, 123, 124, 182; 

see plates, 37, 118 
Pa tro'clus, comrade of Achilles, 
67 

Pau sa'ni as, Spartan commander, 
112; at Platea, 97, 98; treason 

of, 119 

Pelas'gians, savage tribes of 
Northern Greece, 25, 30; walls 
of, 25, 36 

Pelo'pidse, sons of the Pelops, 29 
Pe lop'i das liberates Thebes, 147, 
148, 164; his death, 149, 150 
Peloponnesian War, the, 117 
Peloponnesus, the name, 28, 29; 
location, 62, 67 

Pe'lops, fabled colonizer of the 
Peloponnesus, 28 
Pelu'sium, city at the mouth of 
the Nile, 172 
Pen tel'i cus, Mount, 126 
Per dic'cas, brother of Philip slain, 
164 

Perdiccas, Macedonian general, 
181 

Per'i cles (klez) comes to the head 
of affairs in Athens, 1 123; the 
Thirty Years’ Peace, 123; 
adorns Athens with public 
buildings, 124; his death, 137 
Pericles, the Age of, 123, 124 
Per sep'o lis, 176 

Per'seus, hero of Homer'ic poems, 
40 

Per'sia, 78 

Phar na ba'zus, Persian general, 
146, 147 

Phid'i as, his masterpieces, 124 


Pheidippides (fi dfp'i dez), Greek 
runner, 88 

Philip, king of Macedon, his 
youth, 164; his accession to the 
throne, 164; his conquests in 
Thrace, 165; in the Sacred War, 
166; his victory at Chaeronea, 
167; his death, 168 
Philip'pics of Demosthenes. See 
Demosthenes 
Pho'cian, 179, 181, 182 
Phocians at Thermopylae 107, 
108; rob shrine of Apollo, 166 
Pho'gis, district of Greece, 166 
Phoenicia (fe nish'i a), 23, 81, 
166, 171 

Phoenicians, their commerce, 24; 

arts disseminated by, 32 
Pindar, Greek poet, 170 
Pi rae'us, the, fortified by Themis- 
tocles, 93, 95; commerce of, 
115 

Pi sis'tra tus, makes himself ty¬ 
rant of Athens, 63; character of 
his rule, 64 

Plague in Athens, 136, 137 
Platae'a, battle of, 113, 114 
Plataeans, the, at Marathon, 89 
Plato, 132 
Plu'to, 16 

Polemar'chos, war leader, 55, 56, 
88 

Polydec'tes, 45 
Po sei'don, 16, 19, 67, 74 
Prax it'e les (lez), sculptor, 71; See 
plate, 72 

Pyramids, the, 182; plate, 183 
Pythian games, 167 
Py'thias, Damon and, 152, 153 
Pytho, 73 

Quin'tus Flaminius, Roman con¬ 
sul, 184 

Reading from Homer, A, Alma- 
Tadema. Frontispiece 
Romans, 14, 183 

Rome, 14,15; alone resists Alexan¬ 
der, 177; her growing power, 
184; Macedonia submits to, 
163 


INDEX 


193 


Roxana, Persian princess, bride of 
Alexander, 168 

Sacred Band of the Thebans, 168 
Sacred War, 166 

Sal'a mis, Island of, 62; Bay of, 
110; victory of, 111 
Sa'mos, island, 114, 135 
Sar'dis, capital of Lydia, 81; royal 
road from, 81, 83; sacked by the 
Greeks, 85; Xerxes at, 103 
Saro'nic Gulf, 62, 74, 91, 95, 110, 
136 

Sa'trap, Persian ruler, 172 
Sa'turn, god of Time, 16 
Schliemann (shle'man), Dr., 26-28 
Sculpture, Greek, 71, 123, 124, 162 
Scy'ros, pirate stronghold, 120 
Seli'nus, 162 

Seven Wonders of the World, 182 
Shah-in-Shah, Persian title as¬ 
sumed by Alexander, 176 
Shusan. See Susa 
Sicilian Expedition, the, 151 
Sicily, Greek colonies in, 54, 128, 
151, 162 
Sidon, 24, 171 
Sige'um, fortress of, 74, 81 
Slavery, among the Greeks. See 
Helots 

Soc'ra tes (tez), in the Athens of 
Pericles, 128, 133; his trial and 
condemnation, 142; his teach¬ 
ings, 130, 131 

So'lon, law-maker of Athens, 60- 
63; adjured by Crcesus, 79 
Soph'o cles, tragic poet, 128 
Spain, Phoenician colonies of, 177 
Sparta, 25, 29; location of, 128; 
classes in, 154; early history of, 
29, 30; public tables, 49; educa¬ 
tion of Spartan youth, 49, 50; 
conquers Messenia, 51-54; be¬ 
comes supreme in central and 
northern Peloponnesus, 139; 
rules Attica, 139; insolent, 145; 
Thebes and Athens declare war 
on, 146; her treaty with Persia, 
147; enters Thebes, 147; loses 
spirit, 182; and ^Etolia, 184 


Spartans, enter Attica, 38; trou¬ 
bles of, 44; their houses, 47; 
their customs, 49; and Helots, 
50; defeat Messenians, 53, 54; 
the 70,000,112 

Stry'mon, river, bridged by 
Xerxes, 98, 101, 165 
Su'ni um, cape, 90, 91, 110 
Susa (soo'sa), capital of Persian 
Empire, 83; palace at, 99; taken 
by Alexander, 176 
Sut'lej, river of India, 176 
Syracu'sans, honor Euripides, 109, 
110, 138 

Syracuse, founded, 115; defeats 
Athenian invaders, 138, 151, 
under Dionysius, 151; its golden 
era, 249, 250 
Syria, 171 

Ta yg'e tus Mount, 43, 48, 51 
Telema'chus, son of Ulysses, 46 
Temple of the Furies, 58 
Theater of Dionysus, plate, 129 
The'bans, at Thermopylae, 108; at 
Coronea, 146 

Thebes (thebz), in Egypt, ruins at, 
24 

Thebes, in Greece, Boeotian city, 
32; receives Mardonius, 113; 
defeats Spartans, 149; destroyed 
by Alexander the Great, 170 
The mis'to cles (klez), 89; his na¬ 
val policy, 92, 93; interprets the 
oracle of the “wooden walls,” 
110; his policy in regard to the 
Piraeus and the Athenian navy, 
110-112; his ostracism and 
death, 119-120 

Ther mop'y lae, battle of, 107, 108 
Thermopylae, Pass of, the name, 
105 

Thermopylae, plain of, monument 
on, 109 

Thersippus, messenger, 91 
These'um, the, 122; plate, 72 
Theseus (the'sus), slays the mino- 
taur, 17; king of Athens, 32, 
40, 120 
Thespiae, 108 
Thespians, 108 


194 


INDEX 


Thes'saly, country in the north 
of Greece, 16, 29, 77; keeps out 
of league, 104 

Thirty Tyrants, the, at Athens, 
139, 142 

Thirty Years’ Peace, the, 123, 130; 
ends, 134 

Thrace, on route of Persian army, 
100; Philip in, 165; rebels 
against Alexander, 170 
Thras y bu'lus, 139 
Tibur, river, 177 

Ti'ryns (rinz), seat of prehistoric 
race, 25, 27, 28, 36 
Tissaphernes (nez), Persian gen¬ 
eral, 140 

Tribes, among the Greeks, 41, 42 
Triremes, war galleys, 96; plate, 
42; Persian wrecked, 112 
Trojans, legends of, 19, 24, 29 
Troy, 17, 27, 28; siege of, 19, 26. 
See Hissarlik 

Tyrranos, Tyrants, the Greek, de¬ 
fined, 74 

Tyre (tir), 24; history of, 75; cap¬ 
tured by Alexander, 171 
Tyr tae'us, lame singer of Athens, 
'53 


Ulys'ses (or Odys'sius) hero of the 
Odyssey, 20 

Venus, Roman name of goddess. 
See Aphrodite 

Vesu'vius, 161 

Walls of Cecrops. See Cecrops 

Wingless Victory, temple of, 126 

Wooden Walls, oracle, concerning, 
110 

Xanthippe (zan thip'e), wife of 
Socrates, 130 

Xenophon (zen'o fon), pupil of 
Socrates, 132, 143; with the Ten 
Thousand Greeks, 140, 141; his 
works, 141, 143 

Xerxes (zerk'sez), prepares to in¬ 
vade Greece, 95; crosses the 
Hellespont, 100; reviews army 
at Doriscus, 101; the battle of 
Salamis, 110-113; at Ther¬ 
mopylae, 105-110 

Zeus (zus), chief of the gods, 16, 
46, 67; shrine at Olympia, 113; 
Alexander honors, 175; temple 
of, plate, 69 


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